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The very premise of the story is chilling: two boys of the same age are kidnapped in broad daylight, bound, and transported to a spooky house in the middle of nowhere. That might be sufficient for you if you’re a boy mom like I am, with a son roughly the same age as the protagonist in “The Boy Behind the Door,” and then you won’t need to learn any more about him.
You’ll want to give the movie a chance and stick with it, even though there are some extremely unsettling moments, because the first feature film written and directed by David Charbonier and Justin Powell is so skilful, precise, and well-acted. Furthermore, there are a considerable number of them. Charbonier and Powell get a lot done despite having a limited budget and working within a single location. They maximize the tension by using every inch of the space available to them and making the most of what they have. They do this by establishing an ominous tone early on and giving us just enough information about these children and their friendship to make the manner in which they stand up for one another feel not only believable but also meaningful.
Bobby (Lonnie Chavis of “The Water Man”) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey, star of the filmmakers’ follow-up film “The Djinn”) reveal an easy and playful rapport as they walk to their baseball game in matching green-and-white uniforms. This occurs in a flashback to six hours before the kidnapping. It’s the kind of intense bond that best friends share when they’re tweens, before puberty hits and girls become a distraction. They toss a ball back and forth and dream of escaping their small town to visit California, promising they’ll be “friends to the end.”
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This is all the information we have about them, but it is sufficient. Because once they find themselves in danger, the only thing that gets them through it is their undying loyalty to one another. At first, we are unable to determine who has taken them; all we see is Kevin being pulled from the trunk of a car, while Bobby is left behind to struggle while duct tape covers his mouth and he kicks and screams. Bobby, being the resourceful youngster that he is, figures out a way to escape and runs away to safety, only to hear Kevin’s screams reverberating from a large brick house perched on top of the hill behind him. A couple of lone pumpjacks groaning outside are the only noise or movement that can be heard for miles, giving the impression that time has stopped completely in this location with its black-and-white TV set and rotary phone. (A sticker that says “Make America Great Again” on the back of a beat-up car is mildly amusing, but it seems unnecessary, and it jolts us out of the film’s hazy mood.)
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In the majority of “The Boy Behind the Door,” Bobby is seen sneaking inside and literally and quite frequently hiding behind one door or another as he skulks about, looking for his friend while attempting to outwit his captors. This takes up the majority of the story. The directors and cinematographer Julian Estrada use dramatic streaks of light to illuminate ominous hallways and cramped quarters as the day turns to night and the creaky house grows darker. They are also very good at maintaining silence, which makes us hold our breath just like the kids are doing in order to keep from being discovered. Their performances are made even more impressive due to the fact that Chavis and Dewey are required to do a great deal that is both physically and emotionally taxing, and that they must do much of it alone due to the fact that they are physically separated for the majority of the film. These children are obviously capable of great strength and intelligence, but at the same time, they have a tender heart and a kind disposition, and in their efforts to flee, they take steps that are logical and reasonable. This is not one of those frustrating horror movies in which the characters make illogical decisions that put them in a more dangerous situation than they already were.
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Still, Bobby and Kevin experience a roller coaster of hope and frustration as a result of the fact that for every step forward they take, there is a step backward. Charbonier and Powell place the boys’ kidnapping within a larger context that is deeply depraved and disturbing; however, they find an appropriate thematic balance that avoids any sense of exploitation of the subject matter. (They do, however, steal one of the most famous images ever from a scene that involves an axe and a bathroom door, which is considered to be one of the best horror movies ever made.) And despite the fact that the third act of “The Boy Behind the Door” loses some of its momentum, the film is, for the most part, a taut and well-paced thriller with terrific central performances from a couple of young actors who have bright futures ahead of them — that is, once they get out of here.
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