The Boy Behind The Door Review
The Boy Behind The Door (2020) is a gut-punching and terrifying survival story told from the perspectives of two young kids who must escape the darkest corners of humanity. Twelve-year-olds, Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are best friends who unfortunately are kidnapped on their way home. Waking up near an isolated house but separated from his friend, Bobby navigates a dangerous territory around the house as he searches for his friend. Bobby soon learns that his kidnapper has arranged a terrible fate for Kevin, prompting Bobby to race against time to save Kevin.
The film depicts a dark area that mostly gets references or is it mildly tackled in the horror/thriller genre regarding crimes against children. In The Boy Behind The Door, this horrific social topic is put in the spotlight from the point of view of these kids. Bobby carries the biggest weight in the film as he searches for ways to rescue his best friend while hiding and defending himself from his kidnappers.
For Kevin, he carries the burden of being physically and emotionally trapped in a torture room that keeps dashing his hopes away. Together, they form a survival torch full of resilience, justice, hope, and freedom. They are vulnerable since their age is the perfect target for the depicted predators, but these kids make their stand in fighting against their dreadful fate.
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The film’s tone is extremely dark given the subject matter and the environment in which these kids are placed is like a home invasion film. It may borrow elements of home invasion films but nevertheless, the story is a rescue mission tale. The depicted predators are neither superhuman nor supernatural beings, just the worst of humanity. As such, tension and despair run amok the course of the film putting enormous challenges for the kids to survive.
The friendship development between these Bobby and Kevin is the film’s essential element. Given the traumatic scenario they are placed in, both friends do their best to save each other. Indeed, their friendship is tested in many terrifying moments that will shock the audience. However, the kids’ hopes are what drive them forward to survive the horrors of inhumanity.
Director/Writer duo David Charbonier and Justin Powell have crafted an important and powerful film helmed by two incredible children facing the worst of humanity. The brutal and sympathetic development between Bobby and Kevin is powerful and at times, heartbreaking. Yet, their friendship is the motor of the film. Nevertheless, The Boy Behind The Door is a must-watch film for its important social topic and its brave survival story of two childhood friends fighting through humanity’s hell toward salvation.
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