'The Boy Behind the Door' is a horror thriller that follows two young boys, Bobby and Kevin, as they are kidnapped and try to escape their captors. The film starts by showing Bobby and Kevin as they play catch, and are captured by an unseen assailant. The boys are tied up and driven to a rural homestead, where Kevin is carried off and Bobby left in the trunk, presumably to die. As Bobby regains consciousness, he musters up the strength to break free and escape the back of the car. On setting free, he considers running for help until choosing to turn back and find Kevin, to set him free so both can run from the house.
Once in the house, Bobby finds his captor meeting with a man. As they exchange money and keys, Bobby investigates the house and keeps track of the other assailant, ultimately alerting him to his presence and unintentionally stabbing him with a kitchen knife. As Bobby attempts to free Kevin, who is shackled up in a locked attic room, the captor returns to the house, making Bobby hide out in various spots in the house. In the meantime, Bobby is also able to gather a set of keys that he believes can set Kevin free, whilst also uncovering evidence that there have been multiple other kidnappings of young boys who have potentially been molested before being murdered. Going forward, Bobby is eventually discovered in the house by the captor - a woman named Ms. Burton, who tries to hunt the boy down with an axe. However, she is soon interrupted by a police officer, who Bobby managed to alert earlier by using an old cord phone. Upon further investigation Ms. Burton manages to kill the officer and take his gun.
Meanwhile Bobby evades her capture and takes the officers baton and handcuffs, that he uses on Burton to chain her to a pipe at the back of the house. On returning to Kevin, the boys manage to escape the attic, only for Kevin to be unable to leave the upper level of the house due to a shock collar. On searching for something to break Kevin free, Bobby is shot in the leg by Burton. Exhausted and unable to carry on Bobby is close to passing out and Kevin overcomes the shock waves to get to the boy so the two of them can try to run from the house. Burton manages to break free and chases the boys in the nearby woods. As Burton tracks them down and is about to take them out, another officer manages to shoot her down, ensuring the boys safety. The film concludes by showing the boys fulfilling their promise and visiting California, showing them enjoy the beach before the credits roll.
'The Boy Behind the Door' is an exceptionally thrilling look into a dire situation where a couple of young boys have to escape an extremely dangerous situation. The film approaches the kidnapping with the full impact of the fear and terror that the two boys experience as their capture and eventual detention is shown to its full extent, accompanied with the brutality and malice their captors have towards them. The film makes good use of showing us the full range of emotions Bobby and Kevin go through as they try to make peace with the situation that they are in. More specifically with Bobby, we also get to see the actual practical steps that a person may try to take in that situation, showing us how difficult it may be to break free from a house filled with locked doors and no form of communication to reach the emergency services.
The most fascinating aspect of the film is the journey that we get to go on with Bobby - he is shown to be a fighter, breaking free from the trunk of the car and showing integrity and empathy as he decides to turn back in order to save his friend. His investigative journey through the house and eventual uncovering of the horrible goings on adds weight to the story, making it more tense as it goes along, successfully maintaining an oppressively dismal tone to the story as it moves on. The attempts to break Kevin free and the final chase that the boys must live through is executed very well, creating a high level of tension before the story is concluded.
Besides maintaining a consistent sense of tension throughout the feature, the film benefits from having an emotional through-line that is illustrated through the boys friendship and close bond. It is there that the film adds emotional depth that makes the progression of the story so much more impactful, as it is not just that we want the boys to escape, but we also want for them to be safe together, so their friendship can flourish and they have each other to share in, be it trying to move past the traumatic experience or just to enjoy and see their dreams of California come true.
The two boys are played by Lonnie Chavis as Bobby and Ezra Dewey as Kevin. Together Chavis and Dewey deliver outstanding performances in terms of unforced familiarity and connection with each other and through providing haunting depictions of trapped and fearful children as they have to live through the hell inflicted on them by their captors. Individually, Chavis provides an outstanding performance as the young actor embodies the necessary responses to his surroundings and goes beyond by seamlessly transitioning between each act, taking on each new wave of terror with an unmitigated and unrestrained expression of his struggles. Conversely, Dewey provides for a more restricted performance initially, as his role demands almost a damsel in distress delivery, yet during the last act, Dewey has the freedom to express his characters capabilities to their full extent, providing for a burst of confidence and resilience as Chavis' character struggles to keep going. The two young actors are truly captivating, providing for noteworthy performances and deserving of high praise in delivering a frighteningly realistic depiction of a kidnapping.
The film is written and directed by David Charbonier and Justin Powell. The creators have delivered a haunting account of a kidnapping. With the heavy subject matter, the story is further pushed down into a dark place by the sparing use of light and the creation of a claustrophobic feel to the film through multiple restrictive shots of enclosed spaces, narrow hallways and seemingly inescapable small locked rooms. Additionally, the limited use of dialogue in various scenes only benefits the story, as one scene in particular speaks volumes towards the terror and fear that is inflicted on Bobby as he goes through the safe and uncovers compromising images of boys that had been captured before him.
'The Boy Behind the Door' is an outstandingly terrifying thriller that grabs on to the viewer almost instantly and does not let go til the end. The skilful use of technical features that create the dark and grim feel to the film, in combination with the excellent performances, makes the film a truly enjoyable and terrifying experience.
Score: 4/4
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