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The Boy (2015 film)

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The Boy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCraig Macneill
Written by
  • Craig Macneill
  • Clay McLeod Chapman
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyNoah Greenberg
Edited byCraig Macneill
Music byHauschka
Production
companies
Distributed byChiller Films
Release dates
  • March 14, 2015 (2015-03-14) (SXSW)
  • August 14, 2015 (2015-08-14) (US)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Boy is a 2015 American horror film directed by Craig Macneill, written by Macneill and Clay McLeod Chapman, and starring David Morse, Rainn Wilson, and Jared Breeze. It was based on a short film by Macneill and Chapman, Henley, which was in turn loosely inspired by a novel written by Chapman, Miss Corpus. Breeze plays the titular boy, a budding serial killer.

Plot

Ted Henley (Jared Breeze) and his father (David Morse) operate a floundering family business—The Mt. Vista Motel. It’s just the two of them since Ted’s mother ran off with a guest years earlier, stealing the motel’s soul and one of its last regular patrons. Since then, Ted’s father has drifted into despondency—becoming a living ghost, haunting his own motel and leaving Ted to fend for himself. In his isolation, unchecked by the bounds of parenting, friendship, or affection, Ted's fascination with death awakens with destructive consequences.[1]

Cast

Production

The story has its genesis in a book written by Clay McLeod Chapman, Miss Corpus.[2] Chapman said that few people read it except for Craig William Macneill, the film's co-writer and director. Fond of one chapter in particular, Macneill suggested they expand it to a short film, which eventually screened at the Sundance Film Festival. SpectreVision took an interest in the short, and it was expanded to feature length. A full trilogy is planned in which the lead character's progress will be examined at the ages of 9, 13, and 18. The trilogy is not based on the book and is original material.[3] Macneill expects the films to be released in quick succession.[4] Filming began on February 17, 2014, in Medellin, Colombia.[5] Colombia was chosen due to its tax incentives and the fact that they could afford to build their own set – something not possible in the United States for their budget. It took six weeks to construct.[3] Composer Hauschka was announced to have joined in April 2014.[6] Macneill said that the themes of the film include "the dangerous blend of isolation, neglect and youth". He said that audiences should take from his film a greater interest in the welfare of neighboring children.[7]

Release

The Boy premiered at South by Southwest on March 14, 2015.[8] It received a limited release by Chiller Films on August 14, 2015.[9]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 61% of 18 surveyed critics gave it a positive review with an average rating of 5.6/10,[10] while Metacritic rated it 45/100 based on reviews from eight critics.[11] Both Eric Kohn of Indiewire and Charlie Schmidlin of The Playlist found the film to be effective but dramatically lacking. Kohn wrote that the film "maintains a gripping sense of atmospheric dread", although its "consistently grave tone sometimes threatens to suffocate the dramatic momentum",[12] while Schmidlin felt that the film has "extremely effective" parts, but it plays into negative stereotypes of "slow burn" psychological dramas.[13] These sentiments were echoed by Ain't It Cool News who praised its "dark, broody tone",[14] and by Dennis Harvey of Variety who wrote that the film seemed "endless and dull".[15]

Of the film's director, Craig Macneill, Carson Lund of Slant Magazine wrote, "Even if his talents tip the scales toward overstatement, Macneill has a command for composition and rhythm that belies his skinny résumé, and one can't help but be unnerved by Breeze's relentlessly deer-in-the-headlights performance as the sociopathic Ted."[16] Samuel Zimmerman of Shock Till You Drop commended Macneill's restraint and noted that his "disinterest in making a traditional slasher, let alone an iconic one, ultimately ends up with one of the most memorable contemporary iterations."[17] Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle also found it "more measured than the usual demon-child fare".[18] Dominick Suzanne-Mayer of Consequence of Sound was impressed by the acting and wrote, "If the film itself slips a little too easily into the banality it’s chronicling at times, The Boy is sustained by the measured performances of the handful of wayward souls in its sparse, bleak world."[19]

Drew Tinnin of Dread Central and Anton Bitel of Sight and Sound both believed that the film rewarded patient viewing. Tinnin wrote that "The slow start (and maybe a little of the middle) does pay off, however, with a conclusion that's shocking even after seeing what Ted’s already been up to",[20] while Bitel found it to be "a slow-burner that builds and builds to its climactic conflagration". Bitel also compared it to Richard Linklater's Boyhood and considered The Boy to be a "disturbing flipside" to Linklater's film that succeeds in creating an "austere and chilling portrait of America's abandoned margins".[21] Andy Webster of the New York Times was impressed overall; he felt that the film worked despite its dramatic shortcomings, and called it "a feature stunning to behold" despite finding it "somewhat unpersuasive in narrative".[22] However, Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter took an opposing view and wrote, "While it's admirable that director Macneill and his co-scripter Clay McLeod Chapman opted to emphasize mood and psychology over the story's more exploitable elements, it nonetheless results in a listless tedium that isn't helped by the overly long running time."[23]

Ken W. Hanley of Fangoria listed The Boy as one of his top ten horror films of 2015 and it also received two Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Score categories.[24][25] Zack Sharf and Emily Buder of Indiewire selected the film as one of their "13 Most Criminally Overlooked Indies and Foreign Films of 2015",[26] while HitFix included it in their list of "14 Great Under the Radar Films from 2015".[27]

References

  1. ^ http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_FS17770
  2. ^ Barton, Steve (2014-02-26). "The Boy Doles Out More Casting News". Dread Central. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  3. ^ a b "SXSW '15: Vinyard questions director Craig William Macneill and writer Clay McLeod Chapman about THE BOY!". Ain't It Cool News. 2015-03-22. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  4. ^ Collis, Clark (2015-03-03). "SXSW: Director Craig William Macneill talks about making a maniac in horror-thriller The Boy". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  5. ^ Kit, Borys (2014-02-26). "Rainn Wilson, Mike Vogel Joining Horror Pic 'The Boy'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  6. ^ Barkan, Jonathan (2014-04-25). "Serial Killer Trilogy 'The Boy' Lands Composer Hauschka". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  7. ^ Cipriani, Casey (2015-03-16). "Meet the 2015 SXSW Filmmakers #14: Craig William Macneill's 'The Boy' Wants You to Care About Your Neighbor's Child". Indiewire. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  8. ^ Zimmerman, Samuel (2015-03-03). "SXSW Poster: The Boy's Got Horns". Shock Till You Drop. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  9. ^ "The Boy (2015)". The Numbers. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  10. ^ "The Boy (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  11. ^ "The Boy". Metacritic. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  12. ^ Kohn, Eric (2015-03-16). "SXSW Review: 'The Boy' is the Chilling Start to the Story of a Psychopath". Indiewire. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  13. ^ Schmidlin, Charlie (2015-03-23). "SXSW Review: Director Craig Macneill's 'The Boy' Starring Jared Breeze, David Morse & Rainn Wilson". Indiewire. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  14. ^ "SXSW '15: Vinyard checks out THE BOY and BONE IN THE THROAT!". Ain't It Cool News. 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  15. ^ Harvey, Dennis (2015-03-17). "SXSW Film Review: 'The Boy'". Variety. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  16. ^ Lund, Carson (2015-03-17). "SXSW 2015: The Boy, 6 Years, & A Poem Is a Naked Person". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  17. ^ Zimmerman, Samuel (2015-03-19). "SXSW Review: The Boy, He's a Growing Slasher". Shock Till You Drop. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  18. ^ Baumgarten, Marjorie (2015-03-18). "SXSW Film Review: The Boy". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  19. ^ Suzanne-Mayer, Dominick (2015-03-15). "SXSW Film Review: The Boy". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  20. ^ Tinnin, Drew (2015-03-17). "Boy, The (2015)". Dread Central. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  21. ^ http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/festivals/london-2015/cult-round-up
  22. ^ Webster, Andy (2015-08-20). "Review: In 'The Boy,' an Unnerving 9-Year-Old Makes His Move". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
  23. ^ Scheck, Frank (2015-03-25). "'The Boy': SXSW Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  24. ^ http://www.fangoria.com/new/the-year-in-horror-2015-kens-top-10-horror-films
  25. ^ http://www.fangoria.com/new/never-mind-oscar-heres-the-2016-fangoria-chainsaw-awards-nominees-ballot/
  26. ^ http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-13-most-criminally-overlooked-indies-and-foreign-films-of-2015-20151219
  27. ^ http://www.hitfix.com/news/14-great-under-the-radar-films-from-2015
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