Hopefully you read/hummed this review's subject title in the exact same way as you would sing the lyrics to The Beatles' classic song "Hey Jude". Just checking...
I rather dug "The Boy", William Brent Bell's first film from 2016. It had a fairly original concept, and made good use of the constantly sinister atmosphere and a couple of effectively unsettling moments. A sequel was inevitable, and although overall very watchable and adequately made, "The Boy II" is the most stereotypical, by-the-numbers and clichéd sequel there can be.
Katie Holmes (since many years in desperate need of a career reboot) depicts a mom who, together with her son, went through a traumatizing home-jacking experience. Since then, mommy suffers from anxiety and nightmares, while her 8-year-old son Jude stopped talking altogether. In an attempt to process the events, the family moves to a vacationing house in the countryside. At the estate surrounding an old gothic mansion, Jude finds an antique porcelain doll buried in the ground. What initially looks like an efficient auxiliary to help Jude communicate again, quickly turns into an even bigger nightmare because Brahms the doll takes full possession of the emotionally vulnerable child.
Every dreadful cliché you can think of features here: disturbing children's drawings, disappearing dogs, supposedly lifeless dolls turning their heads or disappearing in the blink of an eye, bullying teens getting what they deserve, etc... To make things even worse, "The Boy II" is entirely without blood, violence or casualties. A few fake scares and Katie Holmes' terrified grimaces are not enough to make a horror film.
