The Loneliest Boy in the World

The Loneliest Boy in the World
Release poster
Directed by	Martin Owen
Written by	Piers Ashworth
Produced by	Matt Williams Pat Wintersgill Piers Ashworth Ryan Hamilton
Starring	Max Harwood Hero Fiennes Tiffin Susan Wokoma Evan Ross Tallulah Haddon Hammed Animashaun Jacob Sartorius Zenobia Williams Sam Coleman Mitchell Zhangazha Nicola Roberts Alex Murphy Carol Anne Watts Ashley Benson Ben Miller
Cinematography	Håvard Helle
Edited by	Jeremy Gibbs
Music by	The Invisible Men
Production companies	Future Artists Entertainment Loneliest Boy in the World Lip Sync
Distributed by	Well Go USA Entertainment
Release dates	13 August 2022 (2022-08-13) (Popcorn Frights Film Festival) 14 October 2022 (2022-10-14) (United States)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$52,215

The Loneliest Boy in the World is a 2022 British comedy horror film written by Piers Ashworth, directed by Martin Owen, and starring Max Harwood and Hero Fiennes Tiffin.

Plot

In 1987, in the small oceanside town of Hubris, awkward teenager Oliver Martin lives all alone in his house following the loss of his beloved mother, Dolly, a year prior. After doing some time in a psych ward to deal with his trauma, Oliver was granted the freedom to return home. He's often visited by social workers Margot Seale and Julius Carter, who check up on him and his mental health. Margot, the more nurturing and kind-hearted of the two, encourages Oliver to break away from his state of loneliness and start making friends. But Julius, who's far more blunt and misanthropic by comparison, believes Oliver to be maladjusted and a lost cause. Taking Margot's advice to heart, Oliver ventures out of the house in an attempt to make a friend. He soon meets Chloe, a young girl around his age whose family recently moved to Hubris. While the two share a walk, Chloe asks Oliver what happened to his mother. It's revealed through flashback that Dolly suffered a freak accident while she and Oliver were in their backyard. Dolly had been floating around in the above-ground pool, watching her favorite soap opera and Oliver had offered to take her picture. But as he snapped the photo, he tripped over the TV's extension cord and caused the TV to fall into the pool, electrocuting his mother. After an adverse reaction to the electric shock, her body was flung from the pool and plummeted onto a nearby garden gnome. Chloe, slightly disturbed by this revelation, quickly leaves Oliver. Later in the day, Oliver visits his mother's unmarked grave and keeps her updated on all the TV shows they used to watch together, as well as his quest for a friend. Unbeknownst to him, and the Hubris townspeople, an overhead plane is in the process of an evitable crash.

While at the graveyard the next day, Oliver overhears the funeral procession of a boy named Mitch, who was killed when one of the tires from the aforementioned plane crash fatally struck him down. In the eulogy, Mitch's bereaved mother brings up how well-liked Mitch was by his peers, considering him a friend to everybody he met. During another routine visit from Margot and Julius, Oliver brings up Mitch in conversation and when asked by Julius where he lives, Oliver replies "not far". Excited that Oliver has seemingly made a friend, Margot suggests he invite Mitch over, her words literally being "dig him on out of there and drag him home". Inspired, Oliver returns to the graveyard to dig up Mitch's body and bring him back to his house. As Oliver carries groceries home, he's stopped by Chloe, who sincerely apologizes to him for her abrupt departure after their first meeting. This ultimately rekindles their blossoming friendship. Later, Oliver then learns more info about the plane crash from the friendly gravediggers. They even tell him about a few of the victims, including: a lovely woman named Susanne, a nine-year-old named Mel who choked to death on a chicken wing as the plane went down, and an eccentric mechanic named Frank. Yearning for a family, Oliver then decides to dig up their bodies, as well. However, he ends up bringing an extra body back home in the form of Ninja, the graveyard's ornery watchdog, after he accidentally runs her over with his car. On the return back home, Oliver places the bodies in various poses for a family photo. Oliver turns in for the night and the polaroid, which Oliver wrongfully assumed didn't properly develop, slowly develops and displays the members of the "family" all smiling and looking lively.

In the morning, Oliver is shocked to discover Mitch, Susanne, Mel, and Frank all back from the dead and going on about life, behaving like an everyday family. Oliver awkwardly greets Mitch outside and discovers that Ninja had eaten off Mitch's eyelids, to which Oliver allows him to borrow his sunglasses. At the town's local hotspot, The Chicken Run, Chloe asks Oliver out on a date as she fends off the advances of Kurt, the town bully and a frequent tormentor of Oliver. Nervous about his upcoming date, Oliver turns to Mitch for advice. After a pleasant evening of stargazing and getting to know each other better, Oliver brings Chloe to his house so she can call a cab (as she doesn't wish to inconvenience Oliver), but Mitch insists that Oliver drive her back home and quickly meet her parents to make a good impression. Mitch also tags along for the ride as his wingman, hyping him up and telling Chloe that Oliver saved his life after a car explosion. Once she's back home, Chloe thanks Oliver for a great night and softly kisses him on the lips.

On Halloween day, Margot and Julius stop by and end up meeting Mitch, who distracts Margot from finding out the truth of the family's undead nature. Julius, on the other hand, goes snooping around the house in hopes of finding evidence that Oliver is delusional. He stumbles upon Frank's detached ear and has an unfortunate run-in with Susanne as she bathes. Embarrassed, Julius hastily leaves with a perplexed Margot. As night falls, Kurt and one of his buddies show up at the house dressed as Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees respectively, with the malicious intent to harm Oliver if he doesn't give them cash as their trick-or-treat "treat". Frank comes to Oliver's rescue and terrifies Kurt, especially after his whole arm becomes detached. Knowing there's a Halloween party happening at The Chicken Run, Susanne decides that the family should all go out together for some fun. Oliver is hesitant at first but after some reassurance from Mitch that he bought additional costume gear for everybody so they can blend in, he agrees to go. Susanne also calls Chloe's mom and invites her family to join them. The fun is briefly interrupted when a rage-fueled Kurt barges into the restaurant and begins to harass Chloe. Oliver goes to Chloe's defense and, with a little assistance from Mitch and his limbs, successfully scares and humiliates Kurt, who pees his pants in fear. He and his friends flee the restaurant as the partygoers cheer Oliver on, and he and Chloe share a romantic kiss.

Back at Oliver's house, Julius's determination to prove his theories and suspicions regarding Oliver's sanity are true reaches a fever pitch. Bringing a professional shoulder-mounted camera with him and calling an ambulance beforehand, Julius sneaks into the house to record whatever supposed evidence he can find. He soon finds himself surrounded by Oliver, Mitch, Susanne, Frank, Mel, and Ninja, who interrogate and intimidate him. Once Mitch turns on the lights, Julius runs out of the house screaming in horror, only to be taken away in a straightjacket by the doctors he had initially intended to send Oliver back to.

Due to his bravery at the Halloween party, the residents of Hubris have taken a shine to Oliver and warmly greet him on his walk. Margot walks alongside him and informs him that Julius had apparently been taken ill the previous night. Margot offers Oliver a ride to the graveyard to visit his mother, and she tells him that if he ever needs her help, she'll always be there for him. At his mother's grave, Oliver shares with her that while he hasn't been keeping up to date with their shows as he usually would, "crazy, weird, but good" stuff has been happening to him in the past few days. He tearfully tells her that he loves and misses her very much. As he leaves, it's revealed that her grave is now finally marked with the words: "Dolly Martin. Mother and friend. 1951-1987".

Susanne mistakenly leaves the iron running one night after she goes to help Frank with a shelf he's assembling, unintentionally igniting a fire that spreads throughout the house. Oliver notices the smoke seeping through the bottom of the bathroom door and worriedly rushes out to make sure the others are okay. He passes out due to smoke inhalation but is saved just in time by the family. They tell him to get out of the house while he can and to live his life to the fullest, expressing that he doesn't need them anymore. Before Oliver goes out the front door, they all let Oliver know how much they love him and promise that they'll be waiting for him in the afterlife. Firefighters arrive and bring Oliver to safety. Chloe arrives on the scene shortly thereafter and comforts Oliver, who tells her the others "went back home". The two of them walk away from the house, with Oliver carrying the fishbowl Mel had saved for him and the once-dead fish are seemingly brought back to life.

Cast

• Max Harwood as Oliver
• Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Mitch
• Susan Wokoma as Susanne
• Evan Ross as Julius
• Tallulah Haddon as Chloe
• Hammed Animashaun as Elliot
• Jacob Sartorius as Kurt
• Ben Miller as Frank
• Alex Murphy as Doug
• Nicola Roberts as Rachel
• Ashley Benson as Margot
• Zenobia Williams as Mel
• Carol Anne Watts as Oliver's mother

Production

Principal photography began on 21 February 2021 in Llansteffan and the Crymlyn Burrows area in Wales, and lasted eight weeks.

Release

The Loneliest Boy in the World had its world premiere at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 13 August 2022. It was also screened as the opening film of the 2022 edition of Manchester's Grimmfest film festival on 6 October. The film was released by Well Go USA Entertainment in select theatres in the United States on 14 October 2022, on demand and on digital on 18 October, and on DVD and Blu-ray on 20 December.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 41% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10.

Preston Barta of the Denton Record-Chronicle gave the film a positive review and wrote, "It's a lovable cinematic Frankenstein of '80s movies and television that's peppered with exciting camera tricks and dazzling production design".

Rich Cross of Starburst gave the film a negative review: "The result is a surreal tale that aims to blend the corpse comedy of Weekend at Bernie's with the macabre motifs of a Tim Burton fantasy, but which ends up strangely devoid of life."

Chad Collins of Dread Central awarded the film two stars out of five and wrote, "The Loneliest Boy in the World is a pastel zombie throwback of sitcom terror whose innate wholesomeness can't compensate for the sense that these undead themes have walked a hundred times before."

Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com awarded the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "The film relies too heavily on cliche and hopes the audience won't notice."

Fred Topel of United Press International gave the film a positive review, calling it "a quirky horror comedy. It has plenty of gore and violence for horror hounds, but also a surrealist heart."

Simon Abrams of TheWrap gave the film a negative review and wrote, "The gags in The Loneliest Boy in the World also tend to be so broad and lazy that it's hard to imagine how this movie's retro-bait sensibility will appeal to anyone other than the targets of this poisoned-apple crowdpleaser's toothless criticism."

Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting awarded the film three skulls out of five and wrote, "It's a simple yet charming story that uses the sitcom format to satirize the nuclear family while offering the protagonist a chance for growth through escapism. The cute zombie comedy makes for an on-the-nose means of coping with death".

External links

• The Loneliest Boy in the World at IMDb