Premiering this month at SXSW is The Boy, the first feature from director and co-writer Craig William Macneill, co-writer Clay McLeod Chapman, Chiller Films and SpectreVision (producers Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller and Elijah Wood) about a sociopathic young boy in the late 80s. Ahead of the festival, see the films first poster, below.
The Boy is based on Macneill and Chapmans acclaimed short Henley. Now expanded to feature length and starring Jared Breeze, David Morse, Rainn Wilson and Bill Sage, the film is set in in the summer of 1989. 9-year-old Ted Henley (Breeze) and his father John (Morse) are the proprietors of The Mtn. Vista Motel, a crumbling resort buried in the mountains of the American West. Since Ted’s mother left, John has drifted into despondencybecoming a living ghost, haunting the motelleaving Ted to fend for himself. In this isolation, unchecked by the bounds of parenting, Teds darker impulses begin to manifest. The arrival of a mysterious drifter, William Colby (Wilson), captivates young Ted and the two form a unique friendship – setting the stage for Teds final, unnerving metamorphosis.
Theres a lot of interesting parallels to and switches of Psycho in that synopsis. Macneill and Chapman are a talented pair (see Henley and Late Bloomer), with a company seemingly charged to produce intriguing and provocative new genre, behind them. Well see how it all shakes out when The Boy premieres Saturday, March 14 in Austin.
