SXSW Review: Director Craig Macneill’s ‘The Boy’ Starring Jared Breeze, David Morse & Rainn Wilson

Rifling through his father’s shed, nine-year-old Ted (Jared Breeze) sneaks out a ledger book rather than the Playboy on top of it. He acts out the role of hotel manager to nonexistent customers at his family’s desolate Mtn. Vista hotel. It’s clear he tends towards a system of checks and balances — at least until someone or something challenges that idea, and then all bets are off. If the rodent roadkill that he collects to sell to his father (David Morse) dries up, he’ll steal a bag of chicken feed and sprinkle it across the street to sway the game in his favor. Director Craig Macneill keeps these actions from Ted deliberate and considered in his debut feature “The Boy” — hinting at the possible disturbing escalations to come. But the clean lines and murky atmosphere of dread also leave too little of a surprise by the tale’s end.

The concept of a tiny Travis Bickle in waiting is absolutely an intriguing one, and it’s what drove Macneill to build his 2011 short “Henley” into the...