The Boy
Director: William Brent Bell
Cast: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
The Boy is a great little horror movie. This Blu-ray release is pathetic. Universal could not give a damn about it, so I’m treating this review the same way. No attempt at a fun intro, no background behind-the-scenes bit, no history of similar movies. Let’s just get this thing done.
Lauren Cohan, of TV’s The Walking Dead fame, is a young woman named Greta, looking to get away from some nasty business so she goes all the way to the UK to be a live-in nanny for an elderly British couple. Only when she gets there — surprise, surprise — they want her to look after a doll of their late son. No really, they’re serious about treating the doll just like a real live boy. Oh, and the couple are going on a much needed holiday just days after the new nanny arrives. Well Greta’s desperate to lay low, and the money is good, so why not humor the old kooks for a bit? Yeah, if you expect that there is more to this story than just that, then congratulations, you’ve seen at least one other horror movies before this one.
Now what makes this movie work is the performance of Lauren Cohan because she is, by and large, a one woman show through most of this. The creepy old English manor house helps set the right mood, and there are buckets of atmosphere all over the place here. There are a lot of good, tense moments, and even a few jump scares that actually work. And since this is a modern horror movie, you may be expecting a swerve at the end, and yes there is one, but it is the rare twist that is earned, doesn’t totally come out of left field for nothing more than shock value, and adds to the story and horror of the film. In all ways I enjoyed The Boy and it will probably make it to my Top 10 Horror Films of 2016 list. It’s then too bad, so sad, that Universal cared so little when it came to releasing this very fine film on to Blu-ray.
Now we get to the special features. There, did you get them all? That’s right — there is not. One. Single. Extra. On this entire disc. Not even the old whipping boy of special features: the trailer. They couldn’t be bothered to even have that on here. No love at all was shown this movie, but oh wait, if you have BD live hooked up, then Universal is all too happy to shill whatever movie they want you to see in theaters by having countless popups invade your movie’s menu. So not only was Universal all out of fucks to give about this movie, they’re basically using it as a platform to beat you over the head with advertisements. That is a detestable one-two punch of not giving a damn about the consumer and I really hope that’s not where Universal is heading with their home releases.
The film, The Boy, is wonderful. It’s a creepy, well-acted and directed, slow burn mystery with scares that actually work. Unfortunately this Blu-ray is a big pile of crap. In 2016 this level of bare bones not giving a damn is inexcusable, especially if they want to charge full price for a disc. So if you have yet to see The Boy, please do so, but don’t buy this disc. Rent it, watch it over a friend’s house, buy it used for cheap off of eBay, stream it, whatever, but don’t pay Universal for the big middle finger that they gave to this Blu-ray release, and to all of us. Sadly, I cannot recommend this Blu-ray at all.
