First things first, Ezra Dewey is a superstar. The young actor who plays the kidnapped boy, Kevin knows how to work a scary movie. His previous film, The Djinn showed Mother of Movies enough to know I needed to see his next film. And here it is, The Boy Behind the Door. A story about two young boys, dreaming about the future and playing catch in their neighborhood. Cinematography is dealt with astutely and it’s easy to see someone is watching. In an instant, their lives changed forever and both found themselves locked up. One in the boot of a car and the other behind a locked door in a large dark house.
The Boy Behind the Door is an easy watch simply because the premise taps into a parent’s worst nightmare. The film plays around with the frightening predisposition of a low-level child sex trafficking scheme. An unknown figure is taking kids from the street, locking them up, and renting them out. Nasty stuff. Writer-director David Charboniers’ sophomore feature film alongside Justin Powell is again a great duo. They clearly have a lot to offer, especially when it comes to serving up the tension required to float horror and thriller movies.
Horror Tropes & Nail Biting
The Boy Behind the Door keeps just enough from the audience to invoke a little surprise while teasing out a cat-and-mouse scenario. In the opening scenes, Kevin is seen with his best friend Bobby enjoying the sunshine. Kevin ends up in the house and Bobby is left to die in the back of the car. What’s pointed out later is that this particular sex trafficker values one boy more than the other based on skin color. Fortunately, Bobby escapes but hears his friend’s screams from inside a large estate. We know will forgo safety to attempt a rescue, and while we silently shout for him to go and get help, Bobby creeps his way into the home.
The tropes come hard and fast in The Boy Behind the Door. Seasoned horror cinephiles will make assumptions more often than not. If I were to nitpick, I could say using child actors is an excuse to have characters make ignorant decisions and get away with it. But any movie that has me yelling at the screen as if I could alert the cast about what I know is going to happen is okay by me.
The Boy Behind the Door Release
All in all, The Boy Behind the Door generally gets things right and I really enjoyed this title. Shudder will host the film from the 29th of July 2021.
I give The Boy Behind the Door
3.5 cleaning hacks out of 5
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♬ original sound – v stewart
- Starring Lonnie Chavis, Ezra Dewey, Kristin Bauer Van Straten, Scott Michael Foster and Micah Hauptman.
- Filmmakers: David Charbonier and Justin Powell (Directors & Writers)
- Distributed by Shudder and reviewed via a screener.
- Enjoy another home invasion-style horror by watching Property or The Goldsmith next.
