Violence can tear a home apart and make family life a trip to hell. Such is the case in The Boy Who Cried Bitch. Harley Cross, in an incredibly explosive performance, plays Dan Love, a 12-year-old psychotic whose uncontrollable behavior lands him in a mental institution. His single-parent mother (Karen Young) is worried about his influence over her two younger sons.
Writer Catherine May Levin has put into dramatic form a problem which is spreading. According to a 1990 American Medical Association report, today's youngsters "are having trouble coping with stresses in their lives and more have serious psychological problems" than a generation ago. Since 1971, the number of adolescents admitted to private psychiatric hospitals has increased fifteenfold; this is a particularly striking statistic given that the teen population has shrunk over the past 20 years.
Up until its bloody and senseless finale, The Boy Who Cried Bitch offers a scary and gripping portrait of a disturbed boy who resists treatment and spreads his destructiveness in ever larger circles. Violence in the home breeds more violence is the message of this troubling film.