The Boy Behind The Door (spoilers)
I’m Not Gonna Leave You!
The Boy Behind The Door is so tense, from the moment it starts we see them in the trunk and other than the scene when they flashback to right before the abduction it’s just on an 11 and doesn’t let up until the very end. This is a very tense movie that will leave you wondering if your heart is beating in your ears or if it was just the music in the movie.
You can tell that David Charbonier and Justin Powell are lifelong horror fans. There are many fun homages throughout the film such as when Ms. Burton yells “now open the goddamn door” just like in Child’s Play 2. Of course the axe through the door is clearly an homage to The Shining, though when they first wrote it they didn’t think of that until they started filming. I must also compliment the way this was filmed with the camera moving along with the axe. It was so well shot and powerful. There’s also classic horror films playing in the background including: Night of the Living Dead (1968), House on Haunted Hill (1959) and The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962). There is an interview where Powell says that The Bride of Frankenstein is playing in the background, but I couldn’t pick out the exact point when it was playing.
This is also a horror film that doesn’t rely on gore and jump scares. It’s not completely devoid of them, but they are a very minor aspects. The atmosphere is really what makes this get your blood pumping. It also has a nice little twist with finding that our main villain is a woman. The guy that we see early is killed almost immediately, which was a big swerve as well. I also enjoyed the jab at Trumpers with the MAGA sticker and the conservative radio playing in the car that Bobby finds. Very nice touch that I’m sure pissed some people off.
Pretty much the only criticisms I have are very minor ones, such as the fact Bobby cleans up the blood with 2 small dish towels in such a short period of time. Originally when I first watched this I was critical that the boys didn’t double tap and kill Ms. Burton, but the more I thought about it, the more I loved that they didn’t. They maintained their innocence even in the face of such horror. Even early on when Bobby cuts The Creep he apologizes and again when he sits up Michael Myers style right into the knife. He wants to protect himself, but also doesn’t want to hurt, let alone kill someone.
The movie ends perfectly with the boys in California playing the ocean. They’ve gone through more than most ever have; they were forced to grow up real fast. They said they wanted to go to California when they grew up and now they are.
© 2021 - 2022 We All Pod Down Here. All rights reserved