Director William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside, WER) is back with another tantalizing tale for the genre, this time focusing on a nanny that gets a job looking after a porcelain doll, which an old British couple claims is their son Brahms. While the concept of the movie is pretty creepy, the film itself is more of a slow-burn mystery with a few jump scares thrown into a couple dream sequences. I personally didn't mind the slow pace since the story kept me intrigued, but things fell apart by the end, ultimately concluding on a somewhat disappointing note.

The story sees actress Lauren Cohan as a young woman named Maggie who's married to a badass named Glenn and they fight zomb.. oh wait.. Uhh.. her name is Greta and she takes a job overseas as a nanny in an attempt to escape an abusive relationship. She's greeted by a peculiar old British couple in their secluded (of course) aging mansion home. After getting familiar with her surroundings she's introduced to the son, Brahms, who just happens to be a freakin' life-size porcelain doll. She laughs it off, thinking it's merely a joke, but no they're dead serious. Brahms IS their son and the rules must be followed to keep him happy.

Clearly the elderly couple are insane, or are they? That's the question posed through a majority of the film and Greta especially begins to wonder it herself when strange things occur after she disregards the rules. I liked the flick for the most part, especially the concept, but there's a lot of lost potential in terms of scares and the story, which had a number of directions it could've gone, but chose to keep things simple and unfortunately somewhat predictable (for seasoned horror fans anyway). Regardless, the mystery behind the doll managed to keep me interested, despite the slow pacing.

The movie begins to really unravel in the third act when a certain character suddenly appears, who was obviously only introduced to speed the plot along and wrap things up. It's also close to this point that the truth behind Brahms is revealed, which proved disappointing for me. As much as I enjoyed the first hour of the film, the final 30 were mediocre at best.

The Boy is a decent film that offers a creepy concept and an interesting slow-burn mystery, but that's pretty much the extent of it. The scares were uninspiring and cliché, while the third act was just a disappointing mess. Regardless, it's worth a look if you're into scary doll-related movies, as it could've been a lot worse.