'THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR' - SHUDDER EXCLUSIVE BLU RAY REVIEW

THE PLOT

After Bobby (LONNIE CHAVIS) and his best friend Kevin (EZRA DEWEY) are kidnapped and taken to a strange house in the middle of nowhere, Bobby manages to escape. But when he hears Kevin's screams for help, he realises that he can't leave his friend behind…

THE REVIEW

THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR might sound like the biopic of a prominent Conservative politician and his sexual deviances involving numerous underage boys, but it’s not. It does deal with child sex abuse, but not at the gnarled, sweaty, sausage-like hands of an egomaniacal corruptor of basic civil liberties and essential freedoms. No, it’s more a reflection on the unshakeable foundations of friendship, hope, love, dreams, and escape (both literal and figurative).

There’s a great deal of good on offer here. Lead actor, CHAVIS, for example, is a revelation. A truly wonderful performer who portrays Bobby as a thoughtful, gentle, street-smart boy on the cusp of adulthood, and who is, at his very core, more than adequately prepared to do the honourable thing by stepping into harm's way to save his friend. By contrast, DEWEY, equally as good as CHAVIS, portrays Kevin with an appropriate degree of childhood naivety and fear without ever dipping into wailing, snotty hysteria. It’s fair to say that he doesn’t have as much to do with his role as CHAVIS does with Bobby, but Kevin is not without his own character arc despite being chained to a radiator for the best part of two-hours like Madonna in Sean Penn’s apartment.

All of this is of course unachievable without solid writing and characterization, and while the adult characters in the movie are little more than leering, morally bankrupt pantomime villains, this isn’t really about them, and the screenplay wastes no time in trying to explain or provide much of a backstory. It’s non-essential when all is said and done. You learn everything you need to know through the eyes of Bobby (and, to a lesser degree, Kevin), and the simple, visceral objective - - to get the fuck outta Dodge - - is uncluttered with adult considerations. Writer/Director’s DAVID CHARBONIER and JUSTIN POWELL (THE DJINN) have not only succeeded in creating a film which, tonally, could pass as an A24-ish production of THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, but also in developing and guiding two wonderful child actors to craft believable and relatable characters.

It’s not all perfect, of course. It’s about 20 minutes too long and bizarrely lacking in any kind of follow up once the conclusion is reached, therefore creating the sensation that the kidnapping and forcing of pre-teen boys into the sordid, underground sex trade is just “one of those things”. But its final scene really is quite beautiful and dream-like, invoking those care-free, hazy, lazy days of summer you used to enjoy before staring into an abyss of spreadsheets and attending company barbecue’s suddenly and unexpectedly relegated lying on your back in the long grass pondering the endless opportunities the future offered to the damp mattress garbage pile of your mind.