Main cast: Katie Holmes (Liza), Owain Yeoman (Sean), Christopher Convery (Jude), Ralph Ineson (Joseph), Anjali Jay (Dr Lawrence), Oliver Rice (Liam), Natalie Moon (Pamela), Daphne Hoskins (Sophie), and Joely Collins (Mary)
Director: William Brent Bell
Brahms: The Boy II is supposed to be a sequel to The Boy, and it is directed and scripted by the same people. How odd, therefore, that the lore in this movie directly contradicts that of that previous movie. To explain why I feel that this is the case, I’d need to delve into major spoilers of the previous movie, so avert your eyes and go back at once if you want to avoid these spoilers.
Okay, still here? You’ve been warned.
In the previous movie, the doll Brahms is not possessed or magical. In fact, the movie is actually more of a thriller, as the whole thing was orchestrated by a living person. Here, however, the doll is possessed. How did that happen? I guess those folks behind this movie saw how Blumhouse raked in all that easy money by churning out lazy, formulaic flicks and wanted a share of the pie too?
Liza and Sean are happily married and they have a brat Jude. Shortly after the movie opens, Liza and Jude are attacked in their family home. They survive the ordeal, but Jude goes into sullen, traumatized mode while Liza has to slowly recuperate from a blow in the head. These people do what people in horror movies do: to get over that ordeal, they move to a creepy-looking too-big house to feel better! People who have watched the previous movie know, but they don’t, that this is the same house where the fun in the previous movie took place. Jude soon finds Brahms, the doll, and what do you know, this time the doll is possessed and it wants Jude’s soul, ooh.
Well, on the bright side, at least Brahms tries to do something evil, unlike that useless thing Annabelle which just existed to look ugly while jump scares exploded out of its ass like fireworks on the Fourth of July. However, this movie moves down the same route as that of every generic horror house and haunted doll movie churned out in the last few years, so there is little here that is genuinely scary. Because everything feels like it’s been cobbled together from other similar movies, this one ends up being a snooze-fest. Even the characters are straight up cookie cutter sorts.
Katie Holmes tries to emote a bit, but her on-screen husband acts like he’s so above everything, and he’s just here for the paycheck. The unfortunate result of Owain Yeoman’s sleepwalking style of acting is that Sean comes off like he never really cares for his wife and son in a believable manner. As for the brat, he doesn’t have many lines to say here, and given how clunky and stilted he sounds when he does have to say something, maybe that’s for the best.
Slow, sluggish, boring, and devoid of scares, Brahms: The Boy II is a bummer of a sequel.
