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A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
01
Why this pick
Like The Boy, it filters childhood terror through an isolated rural setting, pairing a young protagonist's unsettling perceptions with dread, grief, and a vivid, ominous visual style.
02
Why this pick
Its austere black-and-white imagery and intimate focus on a child shaped by violence echo The Boy's cold, psychologically close portrait of loneliness curdling into horror.
03
Why this pick
A formally controlled, deeply uneasy study of a mother's relationship with her increasingly alarming son; it shares The Boy's interest in childhood menace and parental helplessness.
04
Why this pick
This is a more direct but still tense companion: a grieving child encounters a boy whose charm masks frightening cruelty, sustaining suspense through what adults fail to see.
05
Why this pick
Its restrained, observational approach to predatory control and domestic normality creates a similarly disquieting unease, though from the adult perpetrator's side rather than a child's.
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01 / THE STORY
In 1989, John Henley owns a rural hotel in Colorado. After his wife abandons him, John retreats from his responsibilities into alcoholism. William Colby, a drifter, has a car accident near the hotel and befriends John's nine-year-old son, Ted. Unknown to John, Ted has become morbidly fascinated with death and has been acting out violently. With William's appearance, Ted begins to experiment with his urges to kill.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
William Colby
Dad
Mom
Ben
John
Sheriff Deacon Whit
