2016 American horror movie “The Boy” debuted at the box office earlier this week, and, having seen the film, it would not surprise me one bit to see the film struggle to gain traction.

The film, directed by William Brent Bell, tells the story of a girl from Montana named Greta (Lauren Cohan) who travels to the UK to babysit. She arrives at a beautiful house that is disconnected from the cities and towns by a thick wood, and the only outside communication she has is through a grocery boy who comes every other day.

The child that Greta is tasked to babysit has been described by her parents as “odd.” In reality, this description fails to begin to describe the child.  The boy is named Brahms, and is a porcelain doll who lives by a meticulous set of rules.

When Brahms’ parents leave for an extended holiday, Greta decides not to cater to the every whim of Brahms, and chaos, mayhem, and fatalities ensue.

The film fails to deliver any quality thrills, and provides more giggles than screams. The notion of a possessed or evil doll has been executed countless amounts of times and that well has run dry.

The movie’s acting was poor as well. Cohan and actor Rupert Evans, who played the grocery boy, delivered most of the speaking roles and executed them with poor to mediocre results. The only other roles were those of Brahms’ parents (Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle). Norton delivered a fine performance, but Hardcastle’s acting was cliche and almost comical.

The film’s main redeeming quality was the aesthetics, which served as the main tool in making the movie suspenseful. All in all, I’d give the movie a 2/5 and consider it nothing more than a good way to kill time on a rainy day.