The Boy (2016)

I had little interest in watching yet another movie about a creepy doll. I can safely say that having watched Dead of Night and Magic, I’ve seen enough creepy doll movies to last a lifetime. But The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohan is reason enough for me to watch any movie. And it’s not just that she looks like a million dollars. As she proved with that zombie-bashing saga, Cohan has the acting chops to make any grief-stricken scene plausible. 

So I decided to give her movie the benefit of the doubt, and was slowly drawn into the tale of Greta Evans, an American nanny sent to a gothic English house to look after Brahms, the eight-year-old son of an elderly couple who are ’going away’ for a bit. 
Of course Brahms turns out to be a creepy doll, and like Gremlins, there’s a strict set of instructions to adhere to. 

Naturally the glam nanny thinks this is all a bit of a joke to start with, but as she spends longer with the unusual youngster, she grows attached to him. 

For two thirds of the film it’s easy to be attracted to this gothic yarn. The mystery of Brahms’s motives eventually becomes clear in the preposterous third act, a finale which will have you reaching for the off switch before the closing credits. 

Do yourself a favour. Wait until the mirror smashes and do just that. What follows that seven years of bad luck is seven minutes of horrendous nonsense that does Cohan or costar Rupert (Hellboy) Evans few favours. 

4/10