The couple introduce Greta to her charge, a doll named Brahms, which the Heelshires treats as if it were their real son.

Malcolm, the Heelshires' "grocery boy", stops by often, and Greta learns from him that the real Brahms was killed in a fire 20 years ago on his eighth birthday.

Greta asks the doll for help and Cole wakes up and sees a message written in blood telling him to leave.

The mirror explodes and Brahms — a full grown man, who had been hiding in the walls and wearing a doll mask — emerges from it and kills Cole, then turns on Malcolm and Greta.

On July 14, 2014, it was announced that The Devil Inside's director William Brent Bell was set to direct a supernatural thriller, The Inhabitant, which Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi would produce through Lakeshore Entertainment, along with Roy Lee, Matt Berenson, Jim Wedaa, through Vertigo Entertainment.

[6] On March 11, 2015, more cast members were announced, including Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson, Rupert Evans and James Russell.

[7] On March 10, 2015, principal photography on The Boy officially began in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, at Craigdarroch Castle.

[4] The film was released in the United States on January 22, 2016, alongside Dirty Grandpa and The 5th Wave, and was projected to gross $10–13 million from 2,671 theaters in its opening weekend.

The site's consensus reads "The Boy could have gone in any number of scary or interesting directions, but instead settles for usual jump scares scattered throughout a pedestrian plot.

[14] Joe Leydon criticized the average story line in Variety and commented, "Despite game efforts by the cast, this tepid horror opus is never scary enough to overcome its silly premise.

[21] Katie Holmes was cast to play Liza, the mother of a young family who, unaware of the dark history, move into the Heelshire Mansion.

Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Eric Reid, Matt Berenson, Jim Wedaa and Roy Lee served as producers.