SXSW Film Review: The Boy

The Boy is a title that makes this movie sound innocuous. A more fitting header would be Portrait of the Serial Killer as a Young Boy. It is the first film in a planned trilogy about the growth of a mass murderer.

There is no doubt by the end of The Boy that 9-year-old Ted Henley (Jarod Breeze) is a certifiable psychopath who, barring intervention, will kill and kill again. He’s an odd and lonely boy, who lives with his detached father (David Morse) at their dilapidated and isolated motel where no one arrives by intent. The appearance of William Colby (Rainn Wilson) is then all the more mysterious.

Ted’s fascination with dead things and his active causation of violent demise is laid out over the course of several developments. Filmed in Medellin, Colombia, the location on the side of a mountain is spectacular, which only emphasizes the unseemly pall that hangs over the motel. The electronic music score by Hauschka, aka Volker Bertelmann, adds to the overall queasiness but often calls too much attention to itself. The performances and tech credits are effectively premonitory.

Director Craig Macneill co-wrote the screenplay with Clay McLeod Chapman, author of the novel, Miss Corpus, on which the feature and an earlier short film by Macneill is based, and it was produced by SpectreVision partners Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah, and Josh C. Waller, and Chiller Films. We can only hope all these people took extreme care while guiding the young actor Jarod Breeze to engage in all the story’s dark designs. Although the film's approach is more measured than the usual demon-child fare, it is material that is, nevertheless, unsuitable for children.

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The Boy

Narrative Competition
Thursday, March 19, 10pm, Alamo Lamar

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