Review: ‘The Holy Boy’
2025 / Dir. Paolo Strippoli
☆ 3.5/5
Watch if you like: Midsommar, Carrie, The Omen, and having god-like powers but the trade-off is you’re permanently the awkward, weird kid in high school.
When Sergio (Michele Riondino, Primavera), a former judo master and now sad, drunk gym teacher, moves to a remote Italian mountain village, he can’t tell if everyone is just a little too smiley when every moment for him is pure torment following his son’s death. After losing it at the town’s only tavern, he’s taken to a mysterious church in the middle of the night and told to hug 15-year-old Matteo (Guilio Feltri), causing his pain to disappear miraculously. Matteo has become the savior of the town, which has suffered in the years following a devastating train derailment, by helping them forget the tragedy. Still, he’s also a pariah: unable to make decisions for himself, controlled by the town, and very much a high school junior coming to terms with his feelings for his high school bully.
The Holy Boy excels when it wades into the murky morality and increasingly complex relationships between Sergio, the townspeople, and Mateo, and the trade-offs they’ve made for a feeling of security. This is often quite an original film, packed with ideas and not afraid to cause discomfort as it raises questions about consent, community security, and how life cannot exist without pain. The Holy Boy eventually embraces outright horror and a sense that it couldn’t figure out where to end, but never settles for easy answers.