The Boy

So apparently when Lauren Cohan isn’t smashing in the heads of zombies on The Walking Dead, she’s playing with creepy dolls in the sort of old English manor house that seems to exist only in horror movies.

Maybe she should get out more.

The official synopsis of The Boy should tell you what to expect from this B movie:

Greta is a young American woman who takes a job as a nanny in a remote English village, only to discover that the family’s 8-year-old is a life-sized doll that the parents care for just like a real boy, as a way to cope with the death of their actual son 20 years prior. After violating a list of strict rules, a series of disturbing and inexplicable events bring Greta’s worst nightmare to life, leading her to believe that the doll is actually alive.

Why would she break the rules? Didn’t she see Gremlins?

Anyway, here’s the trailer.

I have no idea why the parents named their child after a composer – maybe only so the filmmakers could have an excuse to use snatches from Brahms’s music on the soundtrack.

Don’t be surprised when you hear this in the film:

The boy’s father, by the way, is played by the great Jim Norton, alias the terrifying Bishop Brennan from Father Ted.

The Boy comes to life in cinemas in January.