Stray aka Evil Boy

Language : Russian

 

Year of release : 2019

 

Run time : 1h30min

 

Genre : Mystery / Horror

 

 

A couple who's son has been missing for 3 years, decide to adopt.

The wife gets attached to a boy she finds crawling through the part of the monastery / orphanage which is in decay and out of use. He was in the same area as a priest who was shot in the eye.

 

Nobody knows who the boy might be,and against the nun's advice, they adopt the boy.

 

The boy seems to have been living like an animal, walking in all fours, and is attached to the wife, who loves him and sees in him their missing son,who was about the same age as this one.

 

The boy starts mimicking their dead son,in the way he acts and even his drawings.

 

One problem though, the wife gets pregnant, and the boy doesn't like her anymore. The wife starts being afraid of the boy,after an altercation they had, and now the husband is the one who is more attached to the boy.

 

The dynamic of the couple changes, the wife goes from being completely attached to the kid ( at one point she said to the husband,as she really believed the boy is their son,that she would leave him if he doesn't comply with her wishes), to hating him and wanting him gone,within what feels like moments,as it's only a few scenes.

That was the only thing about the movie which felt off, as she loved the kid, and then, because she finds a ripped picture (she doesn't know it's him,she didn't see him do it) she does a 180 on him and the audience,and from then on,she hates him and ends up being afraid of him. It just felt a few scenes were missing.

 

I loved the way the movie was shot, the angles,the reflections, the visual effects..it is a beautiful movie to look at. The actors were all great,especially the leads,who look sad and pensive, as one would after losing a kid.

 

I loved the fact the husband,unlike in these kind of movies when they don't listen to the woman and just ignore her or think her crazy, he actually listens,and starts investigating,trying to find out where does the boy come from. And he does.

 

Rating : Worth a watch !