THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR
Cert 15 ★★★★
On DVD and Blu-ray and digital from tomorrow
If you can stomach the premise, the first-time writing-directing duo of David Charbonier and Justin Powell could pin you to your sofa with this expertly crafted low-budget chiller.
They begin by sketching the friendship between two 12-year-old boys as they walk to a school baseball game in small-town America. They both dream of the beaches of California and promise to be “friends to the end”. But Charbonier and Powell have something far bloodier on their minds than a coming-of-age drama.
Before they get to their game, the boys are abducted by an unseen adult and driven to a rural house. While Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) is left in a garage in the car, Kevin (Ezra Dewey) is imprisoned in a basement cell while his abductor contacts a conspirator.
Bobby escapes but, as he is about to run off and find help, he hears his best pal scream. The plucky but terrified lad heads to the house. What follows is a horribly tense escape movie as Bobby turns into a very nervous action hero to save his best pal.
It’s an odd movie – a film with two tweenage leads that definitely isn’t a kids’ film.
It’s also unusual to see a low-budget debut movie that is so taut, precise and well-acted.