Welcome to the Scream Factory Crypt! In this binge series I will be watching all my Scream Factory titles I own alphabetically! Scream Factory is my favorite imprint of Blu-Ray’s because they take movies that studios and the public might not adore but have fans and deserve to be given respect. This will take a long time as I have over 120(!) titles and counting, I know I will have more before I finish, so stay tuned! Not only will I talk about them on the podcast but I will review them here as well so you can see how I feel about aspects of each release. Part 16 is The Boy!
The Boy is a slow burn horror film that is wonderfully acted. It stars Jared Breeze as Ted. A young boy that that is a sociopath. He also really likes killing things. At first it’s animals but slowly (and I mean, slowly) onto bigger things. Ted lives at a Motel ran by his father John (David Morse) one day Ted meets a drifter named William (Rainn Wilson), who is hiding a secret in his room that Ted is determined to find out.
The Boy’s strength lies in the acting of not only veterans like Riann Wilson and David Morse, but also Breeze who must of caught the eye of producer Elijah Wood who produced this film and stared in Cooties with Breeze. Director Craig Macneill is able to get great mileage out of his young star which is important when a kid is the star of your horror film. The Boy does suffer from pacing issues and not being surprising in the least. When a horror film is slow it doesn’t always mean a bad thing, however when the tension doesn’t quite build it can make watching a film like The Boy quite a chore. The performances and the direction however make up for most of The Boy’s short comings.
The video on the blu-ray of The Boy is solid. Colors are vivid with great detail. Although this is a small budgeted film it doesn’t look it. Wonderfully shot with a nice use of the barren land the film takes place on.
The audio also stands out for a film that is relatively quiet. The mix is stellar and pops at just the right time.
The extras leave a lot to be desired but getting even the brief 16 minute featurette is better than nothing. It’s not that interesting but not bad, worth a watch once.
The Boy is solidly acted and the ending is cool. It does however take a long time to get there and if you are not willing to sit through some of the quieter, slower moments of the film, it will be a tough watch.
Film: B-
Video: B+
Audio: B+
Extras: C-
Overall: B-