Spoiler Space. Don’t read below if you don’t want to know the “twist.”

Early in the film, within the first ten minutes, Brahms’ mother lays out a list of strict rules for Greta to follow while caring for the doll. Two of the rules involve daily activities that must be carried out to entertain the doll: Greta must read him poetry, and she must play him music… Most importantly, his mother notes, Greta must read very loudly, and play the music even louder, “so that Brahms is sure to hear.” She delivers this line while staring meaningfully at the wall.

Moments later, while explaining another rule, Brahm’s father cleans out a mousetrap and tells Greta, “We don’t want vermin getting in the walls; Brahms was never fond of animals.” He adds, “Whatever it might look like from the outside, our son is very much still with us.”

Gee.

Sure enough, in the final act of the film, the doll is smashed to bits, and suddenly, the real-life Brahms — now a fully grown man wearing a porcelain mask — bursts through the wall and attacks. “He was living in the walls the entire time?!” Greta shrieks.

…Yes, yes he was. His parents pretty much told you outright.

I’ve seen a lot of people call this twist “out-of-nowhere” and say that it “makes no sense” and leaves “plot holes,” but really, having watched the entire movie knowing what was going on, it’s obvious at every turn that the explanation is not paranormal. When Greta determines that doll-Brahms moves when she’s not looking, the way she signals to him that it’s okay to act out is that she goes on the other side of the wall and knocks. Gee. When his parents talk to him to figure out if he likes Greta and wants to keep her on as nanny, they ask her to leave the room, and she hears footsteps once the door is closed. Hmmm. Whenever we get ominous shots of doll-Brahms lying in bed “listening” to conversations in the other room, there are conspicuous vents and intercom-speakers all over the house. I wonder…

The reveal and resulting action is admittedly decent. Man-Brahms’ porcelain mask is fantastically frightening; wisely, we never get a ~shocking mask-removal~ that reveals his presumably burn-scarred visage. It’s just that passive, emotionless, porcelain doll-face… except this time it’s on top of a muscular, powerful man-body. It’s a great contrast. He speaks in a high, reedy, childlike voice that adds to the effect, which is then made all the more frightening when he gets angry and drops down into a growling, masculine register to threaten her. Sure, the film devolves into a rote powerful-killer-chasing-frightened-woman-who-seems-to-only-know-how-to-run-upstairs-instead-of-out-the-front-door, but it’s a sufficiently tense and decently PG-13-violent execution of a familiar situation.

I just wish the film hadn’t been so obvious about what was going on. There are some interesting thematic things happening — when she thinks the doll is possessed by the spirit of a lonely young boy, Greta is actually touched instead of frightened, because she herself has lost a child. It’s almost a refreshing twist on haunted-doll movies. But it’s tough to be emotionally invested in that angle, knowing all the while that man-Brahms is lurking on the other side of the wall.

So, no, The Boy doesn’t break the mold for January horror being disappointing. There’s a better version of this movie that doesn’t telegraph the twist so blatantly, and one that actually explores the emotional implications of realizing you’ve been violated like this. This film was originally going to be produced as In A Dark Place, starring Jane Levy (Evil Dead), who I think is a phenomenal actress. Would that have been better? I don’t know. But The Boy is not the best version of this concept.

Maybe we’ll get a remake in ten years?