(Source-watchfree.to)
The Boy Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWRh1IelCo
(On poster: Evil always begins somewhere)
Created by production film company Chiller Films, The Boy is categorized as a horror/thriller and because of the movie poster's demonic-like appearance, I had high expectations for this. I went into watching this expecting supernatural beings, gore, and adults screaming for their lives as they are up against a crazed child!
Unlike the more recent movie also titled The Boy made this year in 2016, this film does not involve a creepy male doll needing to be cared for. Instead, this boy in the 2015 film is real, but he shows his dark nature through his peculiar interest. The poster alone shows a lot of action going on and brings up questions in your head before you even start the movie.
I found this movie on a free, non-subscription website (which I will put a link to below, before the spoiler section) so if I never ventured into that site, then I probably would have never found this film.
With that being said, was The Boy worth looking for? Did this movie bring out the intensity that I expected or was is just spewing out weak flames?
I want to reiterate, I had HIGH expectations for this. The poster was enough to draw me into the story and learn about how the child on that poster became the way he is. I appreciate that the writers did not flat out say what the boy's problem was with lazy exposition from the get-go, but rather allow the audience to guess. It's an easy guess, but at least we weren't told, "Hey, that kid there? He's mad because so and so happened" The writers didn't treat their viewing audience like idiots.
I also remember feeling rather queasy watching this, mostly because of the first 20 minutes. In the beginning we are introduced to the boy named Ted Henely (Jared Breeze) and see his usual routine that most would consider to be unethical. The start of the film really hammers some gruesome imagery that involves a copious amount of blood, guts, and animal death. If you can't stand to see those kind of things, I'd suggest skipping to the 20 to 25 minute mark where there is less gross imagery, but what follows is mediocre storytelling.
At the end credits, it states that The Boy was based of a chapter in a book called 'Miss Corpus' which was written by Clay McLeod Chapman. Knowing that information, I can truly understand why the film felt like it was dragging most of the time, like it spent time having filler than providing more insight into what happens next in the story. The filler could have been handy to use to develop the character more or further the plot and part of me feels like that the filler scenes are probably in the written version and are done with much more grace.
For example, in a couple of scenes, Ted decides to spend time with a kid his own age and he shows the kid to unique locations. Now I thought something like this, a peculiar main character leading another character to a strange place would've brought out more dialogue between them, perhaps Ted discussing death or something, but instead we simply see two boys having fun.
It is also mentioned by Ted's father, John (David Morse) that Ted doesn't have many friends his age but Ted is not affected by this at all, yet when he sees the new kid Ted could have discovered how to take advantage of him and try to convince him to take apart in his morbid fantasies. There are a few scenes that feel like there could have been so much more done to them, but it just fell short.
I was pleased with the cinematography; it did its job at wanting to make tense moments. I took notice of how some scenes wouldn't show a character during a tense moment, such as slowly moving along a wall as people spoke so we're unsure what dangers await them or not.
The characters were actually not too bad. Ted is as stoic as a child could get, keeping to himself whilst also doing the opposite and getting into other people's business in order to accomplish a personal objective that he's been planning for probably years. His backstory is actually quite tragic for a child to go through and it makes sense how he might get damaged from that event and to witness him working every day to reach his goal is bittersweet.
When I watched this, I didn't agree with what the boy would do for money, but as I wrote this review down it began to dawn on me that this boy is doing all of this all because of that event and if that event never happened, then he might just have been a normal and happier child. That thought still doesn't make me agree with his way of getting what he wants (far from it!) but it's a hidden tragedy that many might not see watching this movie for the first time.
John the father was pretty good too. He seemed nice but helpless over the situation he was stuck in and he had no choice but to stay strong for Ted, who didn't seem to acknowledge his hard work in the slightest. As Ted grew more twisted, I felt sorry for the father. This movie isn't set in any supernatural setting, this could occur in real life where the adult feels ashamed for leaving their child in this state.
With movies like 'The Ring' and 'Children of the Corn', the idea of something supposedly full of innocence delving into a state of evil is horrifying to anyone, especially parents. What could you have done to stop this? Why didn't your ways of helping your damaged child not work? You feel like you're a disgrace at parenting and when children end up killing their own kin in some movies, it drives the knife in even deeper.
Side characters such as William Colby (Rainn Wilson) the bearded stranger with a secret past and the family of three that are stuck with Ted and John are fairly decent. I couldn't complain about the acting with anyone actually, but aside from William, it felt like the side characters served no purpose only to change the pacing of the story and provide more characters to "work off of".
It seems that I'm saying more good things than bad about this movie, aren't I? Well it does have an intriguing story, but it's biggest downfall has to big the slow pacing and the filler. Not every movie starring a killer child has to have the child kill in the first 20 minutes, but it didn't really feel like there was a build up to anything till the very end. It felt like Ted was observing and talking to people who ultimately didn't matter to the great deed he would commit.
I wanted to like it, I really did, but I wouldn't recommend this movie as something you absolutely need to see. I love the story idea, but given that it was taken out of a chapter of a book-not the whole book, but a small fraction of it-it clearly shows how the producers were struggling to stretch this story into a full-length film.
Because of the slow pacing and filler, I would have given this a 2 out of 5 stars, but I really do enjoy the story behind it and I think that deserves a little boost to 2 1/2 out of 5.
LINK TO WHERE I FOUND MOVIE (look it up in search bar on site): http://www.watchfree.to/
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
.
.
.
.
.
Aww, what a cute bunny Ted has...oh no, he's going to kill it, isn't he?
Mom sent a letter saying she wish he was with her...pfft, yeah right. How could you leave your son? You're basically the true villain of this story.
12 minutes into the movie, I assumed he would burn the hotel with his father in it
Maybe Ted doesn't like the music because his father and MOTHER always played it for him. Terrible memories for him now.
It always made me chuckle how Ted stayed committed to saying his lines whenever someone needed to stay at the hotel. He sees a bleeding man coming into the room and he says, "Welcome to the honeymoon suite" hahaha!
It doesn't show how the dad cuts the deer up in detail, leaving us to imagine what the boy saw. I liked that.
I predicted William was a killer! I figured that would make it more justified when Ted would kill him.
32 minute mark! Family of 3 arrive.
Ted looks at the kid and the mom interacting and at first I thought it was because he wanted to kill the kid or something, but when I think about it more, it could've been because of the mom. He wants his mom.
At the 1 hour, 11 minute mark there is a funny cutaway. Dramatic music followed by silence.
Oh my goodness! Are they really trying to depict teenagers as the spawn of satan! Why beat up and pour alcohol on the kid?! That's overkill!
I thought that one girl teen who asked if Ted was okay was going to be more apart of the story. Like Ted would let her survive or he'd get attached to her, but nope.
Ted might be a little too serious. We hear all of these stories about him being attached to women, but that doesn't really go anywhere because we don't see him do that. He never tries to talk to the kid's mom, nor try to be more loving to the passed out teenage girl. If he was willing to love almost any girl, he would have showed it then.
Oh no...Ted burnt the motel, but even worse...he probably killed the bunny too! How terrible, I guess I'm happy they didn't show the bunny die...
The ending with him saying he has a mom in Florida. Ahhh, I see what you did there writers!
No comments:
Post a Comment