When you make a film about a doll that kills, is manipulative and violent, it does not need to be believable, but at least, it should make a bit of sense. It has to have a clear beginning, the narrative, and of course, a logical conclusion. Remember, the classic series of Chucky? That’s right. This is what I am trying to say here. Unfortunately, William Brent Bell’s The Boy, written by Stacey Menear, not only fails to deliver a good story, but makes it laughable to watch it all. It has many dots trying to find its way to connect. But when you have no rational explanation to anything happening in the film, what’s the point of making it all?

Greta Evans (Lauren Cohan) tries to escape her controlling boyfriend. For that, she leaves the United States for UK, where she works as a nanny to the eight year-old Brahms. To her great surprise, she finds Brahms is a doll, which did not make sense for her at all. However, since the “boy” chose her to be his care-giver, she accepts the offer gladly. His parents, before retiring to a long-awaited vacation, leave special instructions which Greta must follow if she does not want to upset the boy. But how can a doll get upset, if he has no soul or ability to talk or complain? Well, soon Greta will find out how mistaken she was….

After receiving the instructions, Greta gets ready for her duties. However, once the parents leave the house, she violates the rules and enjoys herself in the big house. Even a warning came from the father, when he asked her precisely, but had no chance to finish his sentence, said: “If you be good, he will be good to you too. But if you’re bad, then…”. Perhaps, Greta should have listened to senior people more often before disregarding any advice coming from them. Shortly after, when the doll starts acting queer, Greta realizes that Brahms is not only a life-sized doll, but rather a human, who is trapped in a doll’s body. This will make her to reconsider neglecting of rules, and for the sake of her own life, start following them.

I would not have any issues with the film if not for the story line that makes the entire film dull. Even the scene that’s meant to be scary causes unintentional laughter. It seemed the writer failed to decide which direction to take the film in, and creates an additional story to support the main one, the boy (the doll) as a violent creature. Saying that, The Boy is a film that won’t satisfy your expectations, but will amuse you, just for a short time. It will give you a promising start, but disappointing ending, which is again, a bad result, if it still can be considered as a result, right? But whatever it is, I will leave it up to you to decide whether you want to see it or not. And if you choose not to, I won’t blame you for that.