Brahms: The Boy II Film Review

Directed by William Brent Bell

Starring: Katie Holmes, Owain Yeoman, Christopher Convery

Rated PG-13 for terror, violence, disturbing images and thematic elements

Brahms: The Boy II is a horror sequel to 2016’s The Boy. The film centers around a family who move to the countryside after a trauma inducing robbery greatly affects a mother and son. After moving to the countryside, Jude (played by Christopher Convery) finds a doll and begins to connect to it. But soon after, things turn awry in the house as the doll begins to take over Jude.

What I enjoyed from The Boy is that the film tries to not be a cliche horror film. Most horror films start off with a new family moving to the countryside with no context. But The Boy actually shows us why the family moves to a new house. It does bring up an interesting concept of having a son and mother (played by Katie Holmes) traumatized after a robbery. And while it is an interesting concept, the film sometimes tries to be a psychological horror. I wish the film gone that route, unfortunately, it only tries to not be cliche. Instead, the film fails and becomes a typical horror film.

The film relies heavily on jump scares to get the audience afraid. The film is filled with cheap tricks such as a nightmare waking up a character and a musical cue having to do the scaring. It has the same backstory of a dead family that we have all seen before. It has the creepy doll that seems innocent at first, but is actually menacing. It fills all the checklist that a horror film should have. And when the film is not trying to scare the audience, it is filled with dull dialogue in scenes that go nowhere. I can’t begin to count how many scenes feature a character sleeping. The repetitive of many scenes bring down the film and make it more dull. In addition, while the film has a run time of 90 minutes, it certainly feels much longer.

The Boy is a horror film that doesn’t offer much that heavily relies on cliches. The repetitiveness of many scenes make the film seen longer than it should be. Quite honestly, this a forgettable film that doesn’t evoke much emotion or a reaction to the film. There is not much to say for a film that doesn’t try to stand out and instead lazily fills a horror film checklist.

1.5/4