Brahms: The Boy II

Brahms: The Boy II is a 2020 American supernatural horror film starring Katie Holmes, Ralph Ineson, Owain Yeoman, and Christopher Convery. A stand-alone sequel to the 2016 film The Boy, it is directed by William Brent Bell and written by Stacey Menear, the respective director and writer of the original film. The plot follows a young boy who, after moving into a mansion with his parents following a traumatizing incident, finds a life-like doll he becomes attached to.

I was looking forward to watching this film, the original was a pleasant surprise for me and a film I have rewatched several times since it's release. This film would've benefitted more from a little better direction - the film follows Liza (Katie Holmes) trying to rebuild her life after a violent burglary took place whilst she was home with her son. Who, now traumatised by the ordeal only speaks with a notepad.

The film relies too much on dream sequences and jump scares and not enough on genuine frighting moments, which are much more effective. I felt the film for the most part was more about the family dynamic of the two parents and the son, with horror moments placed in between without much effort.

As the film begins it's third act, some revelations are revealed that, as other users have mentioned, tarnish the original films ending and make you question what the filmmakers were thinking. The films strong points in my opinion are the performances of the three leads, who are clearly giving their all despite what they are working with. Katie Holmes is great in the lead role and I've always wished she was in more films and the actor playing her son is also rather good. The film as a whole though is disappointing.

5/10

Not to spoil it for you, but the first film made only a modest profit, and that is because it had a very low budget. That first film makes the events in this film impossible. So it looks like this is just a reboot attempt since Brahms is a very spooky looking doll and could probably sell horror movie tickets if the theme is franchised, except, to tell you the truth, this film is a bit of a bore.

The backstory is that there is a burglary that somehow traumatizes the young son in the family, although the details of this trauma are never told. So the family goes out to the country to regroup. The young son, who has simply stopped talking due to the burglary/assault, digs up the porcelain doll Brahms. He begins to bond with Brahms, as his parents sulk around the house, I guess feeling bad that they could not protect their son? So they let things go since at least the son is showing interest in something, but things get weird. Oh, and all you see of the burglar in the short scene dedicated to the incident is a shadow that makes it appear that the perpetrator was Popeye the Sailor.

There are some dream sequences that go nowhere as far as the story goes because it seems that there is not enough story here to flesh out a feature film length production. I would say don't waste the price of a movie ticket on this one. Instead, just stream it when it becomes available.

I gave this one 4/10 points because the atmosphere, cinematography, and acting are all very good. It's just too bad that the plot is boring and aimless.

This is a sequel to The Boy, which i really liked. But the premise of this movie straight poops all over everything good about the original. It makes no sense why they would go in this direction.

But i'm a reasonable person, so i decided to just go with it and watch it as a new movie with a new premise. Unfortunately it keeps tying into the original, in worse and worse ways. It gets dumber and dumber. And by the end, it COMPLETELY changes everything we know and like about the original. Why? Please why?

On top of all of that... this movie just sucks. It's not scary. And it's so basic in every way imaginable. Every common horror trope you can think of, and not even done well. (1 viewing, 4/10/2021)

The first movie was a good horror with twists and a creepy doll and atmosphere. This has none of that. It's just a build up to absolutely nothing. Where you feel the movie should start it ends. Worst movie I've seen at the cinema and I've seen a lot of cheap Blumhouse movies. Wish I'd waited for the digital version.

The first film was fairly surprising imo though many hated the twist ending. I thought it worked rather well. This new film rewrites the story with the doll quite a bit and it will work with some and won't with many. The film has an overall similar feel to the first I. Ambience and scares and even gets a bit more demented at times. The cliches are there but if you know what you're getting into it shouldn't be surprising. Overall there are some interesting moments and enough creepiness to be decent enough.