The Boy

Ah, the creepy doll movie. Dolls do creep me out, don't know how I ever had any as a child. Probably because I didn't watch any creepy doll movies. But I digress...

So this one has an American woman coming to a mansion in England to work as a nanny to the child of an older British couple. Of course, the child is not a child but a doll. And it is creepy. There's no other word for it. The fact that it looks alive at times and just stares blankly (and at one point seems to move around the house of its own free will) makes it scary all by itself, before any other weird stuff starts happening.

The main girl is of course on the run from a painful past and that's why she came all the way across the pond to baby-sit a doll. Honestly, I'm not sure what purpose this whole side story served, other than giving her a reason to go so far to take a job as a nanny, which doesn't seem to be her chosen profession. Anyway, once you get past these questions, you are faced with a bunch more like: why does the doll need a baby-sitter to begin with, why does she have to blast eerie music through the house to keep said doll happy, why does she have to give it lessons and read to it, etc. And what happens if she doesn't do these things?

Well, like any sane, unsupervised employee would do, she stops following all these rules and throws the doll in its room and goes about her business while the doll's "parents" are out of town on their first vacation in years. Of course, then strange things begin to happen and she can't explain any of it, not even with the help of the local grocer, who is suitably cute and charming, though he thinks she has gone off the deep end when she suggests the doll has a mind of its own.

Then comes the twist. It's not an anger-inducing twist - I tend to get annoyed with a lot of the twists in these movies, either because they've been done to death or because they make no sense. This twist falls into the latter category, even though it didn't make me angry. It made me wonder a few things, though. I can't say the questions that stuck with me because it will ruin the ending for you, but after watching it you will probably ask the same ones. It kind of negates a lot of what went before, and leaves you bewildered at the motivations of some of the characters. Oh and I saw the same ending in two other horror movies in the last couple years. But again, no spoilers.

Overall, I recommend The Boy for its spooky atmosphere, interesting set-up and creepiness. Just don't be too disappointed by the ending; it works in most ways, I just felt it was not explained very well.