An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2016’s The Boy
When a new job as a live-in nanny takes Greta (played by Lauren Cohan) to the Heelshires estate in the United Kingdom she soon discovers there may be supernatural presence in the house targeting her.
UPDATE: We recently reviewed/explained The Boy‘s 2020 sequel Brahms: The Boy 2 which you can read by clicking here.
Is it Scary?
There’s something inherently creepy about dolls especially porcelain dolls so you would expect The Boy to be scary yet it isn’t overall. The first half of the film does have some creepy moments and a couple of jump scares but, the second half is more light, focusing more on the story.
Don’t expect to be leaving this movie afraid of anything except maybe an abandoned mansion but, that should already be scary.
Detailed Plot:
The movie opens with Greta (played by Lauren Cohan) arriving at the Heelshire estate in the United Kingdom where she has been hired as a nanny. She’s told by the driver that the Heelshires stepped out for a bit and asked for her to wait in the parlor.
Entering the mansion, Greta hears sounds and thumping coming from above. She calls out but no one answers. She finds the room belonging to the boy she, presumably, will watch over when she’s startled by the grocery man, Malcolm (played by Rupert Evans). He offers to give her a tour of the estate if she helps him put away some groceries.
In the kitchen, after a failed attempt at flirting by Malcolm, we find out Greta has mysterious past and is running from something leading her to leave the U.S and take the job in the United Kingdom.
Greta asks about Brahms, the boy she was hired to watch over, and Malcolm responds with “it’s difficult to explain” but before he can elaborate further, Mrs. Heelshire enters.
She brings Greta to Mr. Heelshire and we find out just why it was difficult for Malcolm to explain. Brahms is a freaking doll. Either the Heelshires are serious about their doll collection or there’s some weird shit going on.
Greta laughs at first but it becomes painfully clear it’s not a joke. Malcolm enters and talks to the doll in an effort to break the tension and awkwardness. Greta follows his lead, shaking Brahms hand and introduces herself.
Mrs. Heelshire walks Greta through some of her daily tasks including waking Brahms up, dressing him, reading to him in a loud voice, and playing loud music for him. Throughout this entire thing Mrs. Heelshire treats the doll entirely as a live human child.
Mr. Heelshire then walks her through how to store food since they do not throw any food out in the house and takes her outside to show her the rat traps. He also explains to her that the fireplaces are not to be used as it’s a hazard.
That night the Heelshires speak privately with Brahms and when they exit the room, Mrs. Heelshire tells Greta Brahms has chosen her so she has the job. Honestly sounds like pretty sweet gig.
Later Greta is on the phone with a friend, Sandy, and we find out she is running away from a violent ex named Cole who, despite having a restraining order against him, has been trying to find her.
The following morning the Heelshires pack for vacation and seem to be rushing to leave. They leave Greta with several pages of instructions and tell her she’ll be alone in the house. But, they make it a point to reiterate that she follows the instructions to the letter, as Brahms can be picky.
Before they leave Mrs. Heelshire hugs Greta and whispers in her ear, “I’m so sorry.” Ominous and also what the fuck?
As soon as they leave Greta puts Brahms on a chair, tells him he creeps her out, covers him with a blanket, and makes herself a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with a side of red wine. Though, she takes a nap before she can finish the whole cup of wine.
When she wakes up the blanket covering Brahms is now on the floor. Must be the wind, right? She grabs the doll, tosses it on a chair in his room and closes the door.
That night Greta is woken by the sounds of a child crying and instead of saying “fuck that” she grabs a candle to search the home. Approaching a painting, a hand reaches out and grabs her but this is revealed to have been a nightmare.
A week later Malcolm returns to the house with a new delivery and Greta asks him the story of the doll. Malcolm takes her to the gravestone of Brahms and we get a short exposition dump on what happened.
Twenty years ago a fire broke out in the home on Brahms’s 8th birthday and he was the only one who didn’t make it out. A little while later, Mrs. Heelshire brought the doll as a coping mechanism and little by little he became the proxy for their lost child.
Malcolm offers to give Greta a tour of the town that night and she agrees as long as it’s not a date. A little while later Greta showers leaving her coral dress on a hamper and her necklace on the sink but we see something offscreen taking the items.
Before she realizes her items are missing, Greta sees a portion of her hair has also been cut possibly while she was sleeping.
Greta cautiously enters her room and finds all of the drawers open. Stepping back out to the hallway, the attic door and ladder are now down. Thinking it may be Malcolm playing a not-so-funny prank, Greta climbs up the ladder like none of this is weird.
In the attic the ladder shoots back up and gets stuck locking her in the attic. Through a wind grate she sees Malcolm arriving at the house but he’s unable to hear her yells and, after some time, drives off. Greta then sees a shadowy figure, falls backwards, and knocks herself out.
She wakes up the next morning and realizes “the figure” she saw was actually a coat rack. Looking around for a way out, finds a photo album with pictures of the real Brahms from 20 years ago and she seems awfully calm for a person who definitely has an intruder in the house.
The ladder opens on it’s own and she’s able to escape. Later, she calls Malcolm to inspect the home, finding it empty with no signs that someone is or was there. The two then play a games of billiards where she asks him to tell her about the real Brahms.
He tells her he was a strange kid and even Mr. Heelshire, when drunk, described him as “odd”. If you know any English people you know that translates to “fucking weird”.
That night on the phone, Sandy tells Greta that her son accidentally gave Cole Greta’s address so he can send her an apology letter.
Greta goes to brush her teeth and catches a glimpse of a shadow running past. She goes into Brahms’s room and finds all the instructions scattered across the floor. Creeped out by the doll, she moves his head away from her but it moves back on it’s own in a jump scare.
This is then revealed to be another nightmare…
Greta wakes up to a child laughing and finds her shoes directly outside her bedroom door which is definitely not where she left them. She goes to Brahms’s room and finds the doll sitting on the edge of the bed with the clipboard of rules next to him.
Greta runs back to her room, locking the door behind her, and attempting to use the phone but the phone line is dead. The phone rings and a child’s voice on the other end of the line says her name. She hangs up the phone and continues to flip out when the phone rings again. She picks it up asking who it is and the child’s voice responds asking her to come out and play.
She repeats her questions and the voice simply responds with “Why won’t you follow the rules?”
She sees footsteps approaching the door and placing something on the ground in front of the door. The stranger then taps on the door before leaving while humming a lullaby. Moments later the stranger returns and says, in a child’s voice, “I promise I’ll be good.”
Greta opens the door and sees her favorite, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a tray prepared for her. This leads her to believe the doll is actually alive with the child spirit of Brahms that means no harm. The revelation comes as a relief to her and she then agrees to start taking the rules seriously.
We cut to the Heelshires at an ocean or lake filling their coat pockets with rocks and writing a suicide note to Brahms as they walk into the ocean.
Over the next several days Greta follows the rules to the letter and it all appears to be going well until Malcolm comes by and tries to invite Greta out for a night out. Although she turns him down and he leaves this appears to drive her to try to prove Brahms is alive.
She puts food in front of him and asks the doll to reach out to it, frustrated she asks for a sign but gives up and throws out the fruit. When she turns back around, Brahms has moved.
Greta calls Malcolm back to the house where she has set up a test, she puts a chalk outline around Brahms and tells him to move when she leaves the room. Malcolm doesn’t believe the doll will move but plays along.
When they check, the doll is in the same spot as before and Greta tells Malcolm to give her one last chance. Despite him thinking she’s lost her mind, he agrees. Greta goes to Brahms and begs him to move just to show Malcolm he’s real.
Greta and Malcolm exit the room and they both hear a child giggling and footsteps. They re-enter and see Brahms has moved, the two celebrate thinking they’ve found proof of the supernatural.
The two walk along a path along the estate and Greta reveals her ex, Cole, was physically abusive but no matter how many people told her to leave him she stayed. She became pregnant and during a Cole outburst, he beat her causing her to lose the baby. This has led Greta to feel like she was brought to the Heelshires and Brahms for a reason.
Malcolm and Greta then kiss, happy to have met each other.
That night after Greta puts Brahms to bed she goes back to her room where Malcolm is waiting. They start to kiss but stop when loud music plays through the house.
They rush over to find Brahms standing over the record player.
Greta thinks it was a tantrum but Malcolm thinks something more malicious is going on. He tells Greta the rumored story about the day of Brahms 8th birthday.
A young girl named Emily Cribbs used to go to the house to play with Brahms until one day she went missing. Police later found her body in the woods with her head crushed. Suspecting Brahms was somehow involved, they let the Heelshires know they would need to question him but when they got to the house it was already up in flames with Brahms still inside.
Malcolm thinks if there is a spirit or ghost in Brahms, it may not be an entirely good spirit and tells her it’s not safe in the house. Despite this, Greta thinks Brahms would never hurt her and refuses to leave.
After putting Brahms back to sleep, Greta heads into the attic and looks through the photo albums. There she finds a picture of the real Brahms with Emily Cribbs proving at least part of the rumored story. Greta still doesn’t leave the house.
The following day while preparing food for Brahms, Greta hears someone playing pool. Thinking it’s Malcolm she goes to check but it’s revealed to be her ex Cole who has tracked her down and broken into the home.
A little bit later while they eat, Cole tries to make amends and shows Greta plane tickets for the following day. His plan is to take her home and leave the doll.
Malcolm arrives and it gets awkward. Greta reveals she has a plan to make Cole leave and Malcolm leaves when they see Cole staring at them from down the hall.
Cole tells Greta she needs to forgive him but when she tells him she can’t, he tells her she’s going to have to because she’s not leaving him. He’s practically asking to get killed by a ghostly spirit with a possibly murderous background… Where can we find one of those?
Greta brings Cole some blankets and takes Brahms to his room. That night while in bed with Brahms, Greta promises not to leave him but asks him to help her with her Cole problem.
Later while everyone is sleeping, including Malcolm who is revealed to have never left and is sleeping in his car, blood starts to drip on Cole’s face. He wakes up and yells for Greta who is now alone in bed with Brahms missing.
She runs to the room and Cole shows her someone has written “Get Out” in rat blood above him. Believing it was her since no one else was in the house he flips out when she says it was Brahms.
He plays along and tells her to give him the doll but she refuses and rushes out of the room with him. Cole follows behind grabbing her, ripping Brahms from her hands, and throwing her to the ground.
Malcolm hears the screaming and comes running into the house telling Cole to give back Brahms and leave the house. Since everyone is asking for Brahms, Cole swings him around and smashes him to pieces on a chair.
Loud banging is heard through the walls and the lights flicker as Malcolm tells Greta they should leave. Cole approaches a mirror and is about to say something when he’s blasted across the room from the mirror and wall exploding out.
They then hear Brahms’ child-like voice emanating from the hole in the wall and calling out for Greta. A hand emerges and out comes the real adult Brahms wearing a creepy mask for some reason.
Brahms lunges at the group, first punching and pushing Malcolm away, pushing Greta away, and jumping on Cole bashing his head on the ground until he reaches for a porcelain shard of the doll and stabs him in the neck with it.
As Cole dies Brahm grabs Greta but Malcolm hits him in the head with a statue. Greta and Malcolm run but when they get close to the front door, Brahm appears in front of them having used entrances and exits in the walls to move quickly through the house.
Malcolm and Greta rush upstairs fending off Brahms in two different rooms before finding an opening in the walls and rushing through it. This leads them to a hidden room that belongs to adult Brahms with a sink, fridge, and even a doll wearing the clothes he stole from Greta.
The two find another opening that leads back to the ground floor but Brahms has found them and chases after them. Malcolm struggles with Brahms and tells Greta to leave him behind. Brahms slams Malcolm’s head onto the ground knocking him but Greta has broken open a latch allowing her to escape.
She runs off reaching the front gate but decides to turn back around and enters the home. She finds a screwdriver and searches for Brahms. Finding him, she hides the screwdriver in her back pocket and tells Brahms she promised him she wouldn’t leave him and she’s keeping that promise.
Greta yells that it’s time for bed and Brahms complies, letting her take him to his bed and tuck him in. He asks for a kiss goodnight and Greta takes the opportunity to stab him in the side of his stomach. Brahms flips out like someone who’s just been stabbed in the side of his stomach and throws her across the room. He starts to strangle her but Greta is able to pull the screwdriver out of him and stabs him in the stomach again.
Greta rushes down to where she left Malcolm and finds him still alive, able to bring him to the car and drive him away from the mansion.
The film ends with a still alive Brahms putting the shattered pieces of doll-Brahms back together.
What Happened in the End?
In reality, when Brahms was 8 years old he killed Emily (most likely not accidently) and instead of his parents turning him in, they decided to fake his death and hide him in the walls. It’s hinted that Brahms has killed some of his nannies in the past 20 years looking for the perfect one.
When Greta arrives, he decides she is the perfect one and the parents, feeling guilty for what they’ve done, kill themselves.
The set of rules Greta is left with is doing two things, one; it benefits Brahms, for example playing music really loud so Brahms could hear it in the walls, and two; it makes others empathize with Brahms parents for their “loss” and not question things.
While the movie tries to make you believe there is a supernatural aspect to it, it turns out there isn’t at all and Brahms is just moving through secret entrances in the house.
Review:
The Boy makes a slight tonal shift halfway that was unexpected but in the end works. Once doll Brahms spoke with Greta I didn’t expect the movie to take a more lighthearted approach with her trying to prove that spirits are real.
Before that point I do feel like the fake out nightmare scares are actually a detriment to the movie as they make the real scares feel less genuine. Sort of like if an executive deemed the film less scary than it should be and forced some added-on nightmare scenes to make it “scarier”.
It’s a good film with good acting, a somewhat wild premise and story that actually works just don’t go in expecting a full on horror movie. It’s a lot tamer than that.
Cast IMBD