The Boy : La Malédiction de Brahms

At one point I was like " Is something going to happend ? ". I asked myself that 1 hour into the movie knowing they had only 25 minutes left to finished with something that makes sens. The first movie really had an impact on me because I was not expecting the end at all and I was hoping to have the same feeling about this one. Or at least something that make sens with the end of the previous one. But I feel like they used the easy way out with that predictable ending.

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

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.

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.

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)