The Butcher Boy (1997) 6/10

So i'm a fan of Rue-Morgue magazine. I've got a subscription and everything. They posted a list of 101 best horror films you haven't seen. See the list is for us horror fiends that have seen all the well known zombie flicks, slashers, and giallos. I've seen most of the 101 but there's about 20 or so that I haven't. The Butcher Boy is the first on the list i've decided to tackle.

The Butcher Boy is an Irish film set in Ireland during the 1960s. The main character is a little boy who's a bully and a ticking time bomb with an obsession with destroying his neighbors.

The film isn't really a horror film, at least not to me. Sure in the end theres a bit of killing but really its a dark drama. Its beautifully directed and well acted and does a great job of putting us into the time in which it was made. The fear of communism and nuclear war. The poverty of the people at the time. It captures all of it. It's pretty hard to watch at times though. The kid is a nasty bully that gets meaner and more sociopath as the film progresses. We see him abused by his parents and by his neighbors, sent to a reformatory catholic school where he's abused by a priest. The kid really never had a chance to be normal and i guess thats what we're supposed to come up with. Its kinda slow going as the film seems to meander and have no clear direction during many scenes in the film.

In the end the Butcher Boy is an interesting time capsule but not really worth spending time trying to seek it out. Check it out if you like very dark indie dramas.

Overall- 6/10