Major spoilers ahead for not only Brahms: The Boy II, but also for the original, The Boy (2016). Consider yourself warned.

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Nobody would ever accuse 2016’s The Boy of being the greatest horror flick ever made. But I have to say that I did like it. Lauren Cohan was a great lead, it was surprisingly creepy and the story’s last-act twist was pretty clever. And of course, its ending was set up to continue the story. So, when I saw the trailer for Brahms: The Boy II (definitely not the best title they could’ve come up with), I was definitely interested in seeing it.

For those unfamiliar with the original, The Boy told the story of Greta (Cohan), who takes a nanny job in England in order to get away from an abusive boyfriend. But when she gets to the massive Glenview Manor, home of the Heelshire family, she finds that the job isn’t taking care of a real kid. In reality, the elderly parents want her to care for a doll named Brahms after their child who died in a fire when he was 8. Greta thinks she’s being punk’d at first, but soon realizes that the old couple’s serious – and scared.

Later, they leave her with the doll and Greta discovers why – the doll seems to be alive. She hears it talking, her things get stolen, she gets mysteriously locked in the attic, etc. As the flick goes on, Brahms’ playful tricks become more sinister. Finally, when the aforementioned abusive ex suddenly shows up to take Greta back (and to be the cannon fodder), the twist comes. We find out that Brahms (the dude, not the doll) never actually died. He grew up disfigured and living behind the house’s walls. Basically, he turned into Michael Myers/Jason Voorhees. However, Greta apparently kills him and escapes. Then, we see him putting the doll back together.

Katie Holmes in Brahms: The Boy II

So with that in mind, The Boy II starts with a family living in England – there’s mom Liza (Katie Holmes), dad Sean (Owain Yeoman) and their kid Jude (Christopher Convery). While Sean’s working late one night, Liza wakes up to discover burglars in the house. She tries to stop them from hurting Jude and gets clocked upside the head. Afterwards, both she and Jude are understandably traumatized and are suffering the effects. Liza has headaches and severe anxiety while Jude’s stopped talking altogether. After noticing that therapy isn’t helping him, the family decides to take a break and leave the city for a while. Sean finds them a lovely, secluded rental house in the countryside. Of course, it turns out to be Glenview Manor’s guest cottage.

On their first walk in the woods, they find their way to the massive main house – but it’s been closed up for renovations. Meanwhile, Jude hears a voice calling him and follows it to a spot where Brahms (the doll, not the dude) has been buried. Jude takes an immediate liking to Brahms and brings him home. While he and Liza clean him up, they find a crumpled note with “the rules” typed on it. Anyone who’s seen the original will remember them as Brahms’ very particular guidelines. His rules consist of no guests, read him a story, play him loud music, give him a kiss goodnight and, most importantly, never to leave him.

The next day, Liza finds Jude’s favorite teddy bear torn to shreds. But when she asks Jude about it, he just scribbles on his note pad that he didn’t do it – Brahms did. Liza starts to get even more concerned when Jude demands that Brahms “eat” with them, with his own plate of food and all. Liza and Sean report the new developments to Jude’s therapist (Anjali Jay), who tells them not to worry too much about it. Brahms is just helping Jude to work through his trauma, and she sends them links to articles about toys as therapeutic tools. Next day, while out in the woods, Liza and Jude meet Joseph the groundskeeper (Ralph Ineson) and his dog. Naturally, the dog hates Brahms. Not to mention, it’s clear that Joseph recognizes the doll too, though he doesn’t say anything to them about it.

Owain Yeoman, Katie Holmes, Christopher Convery in Brahms: The Boy II

As time goes on, Liza finds that being away from the city hasn’t helped her anxiety, either. She’s still having headaches, bad dreams and even starts hallucinating – or so she thinks. Of course, we as the audience already know that it’s a real threat she’s sensing. But this is one thing the flick does a good job of – showing Liza’s uncertainty and her inability to trust her own mind. Jude’s behavior gets weirder and creepier. He starts dressing like Brahms (yeah, he just happens to have a bunch of old-fashioned suits and sweaters) and Liza finds scary drawings in his note pad. In addition, they depict violent scenes of Joseph’s massacred dog (who turns up dead later) and even drawings of a murdered Liza and Sean with Jude standing over them.

Now, at this point I need to stop and remind y’all of something. If you’ve seen the original flick, then you’re expecting to see Brahms (the dude, not the doll) show his Michael Myers-y self, identify himself as the cause of all the scariness and wreak some havoc. However, by the halfway point of the flick, he still hasn’t shown up. You suspect that he isn’t going to. Then, your suspicion is confirmed when Liza starts doing the requisite internet search and a whole new story builds itself with each website of questionable veracity.

Are you ready for it? Okay, here goes – basically, we find out that what happened in the original flick was not actually the beginning of the story. Turns out the Heelshire family was just another addition to Brahms’ (the doll, not the dude) collection of cursed owners. Yeah. So even though the original flick is clearly the, well, origin of the story, the creatives behind it decided to take a hard left down Revisionist Road. They make the Brahms doll into a demon à la Annabelle and Chucky. As the flick moves into its last half, you as the viewer have to make a decision. Perhaps you’re okay with this new and even-more-ridiculous canon. Or you’re like me and you’re insulted that you’re being expected to accept it. This bait-and-switch undermines every good thing the flick actually does have going for it.

Christopher Convery in Brahms: The Boy II

Now, the stakes do actually start ratcheting up as much as a PG-13 rating will allow. Brahms (obviously the doll since the dude is not in the flick at all) brainwashes Jude into causing an “accident” where a preteen bully cousin gets his shoulder impaled on a broken croquet stake while fighting over the doll. While dad Sean rushes the little jerk off to the hospital, Jude and Brahms disappear into the main house. Of course, it’s up to Liza to save him. Along the way, Joseph the groundskeeper reveals that he was the one who put the doll back together. He too is under the demon’s spell, right before he does some requisite possession-movie-levitating and dies. That part fell squarely into the yeah-okay-whatever category.

At this point you’re just along for the ride as Liza navigates her way through the labyrinthine walls to the cellar. She finds Jude in front of a roaring furnace (of course the furnace still works in a house where no one’s lived for years) wearing Brahms’ (the dude, not the doll) mask and holding the doll. It’s Jude who saves the day as he chucks the doll into the roaring furnace, wherein its true demonic face reveals itself.

Now, it’s ugly. Like really ugly, even for a demon. Then all is well and it’s back to their house in the city, back to normal life and everything is awesome. That is, until Liza and Sean go to bed for the night and Jude gets up. He goes over to his closet and takes out the Brahms-mask and puts it on, saying something about being happy there as long as they follow “the rules.” And…that’s it.

Now, you did read correctly above – the flick really does have a worthwhile aspect, that being the story of Liza and Jude trying to recover from the attack on their home. If you separated that part of the story from the horror aspects of the flick, you’d have a pretty decent drama. Both Katie Holmes and Christopher Convery are quite believable in their portrayals of their wounded, traumatized characters. You want to see them fight through and recover.

The problem is that this isn’t a story about them. It’s about Brahms. That part of the story – which worked surprisingly well in the original – totally fights against the good character work here. Specifically, when the lame, revisionist version of Brahms’ story is revealed. Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say the flick’s completely unwatchable. However, it’s really disappointing to see another promising, potential franchise going in the absolute wrong direction.

 

Directed by: William Brent Bell

Written by: Stacey Menear

Release Date: Feb. 21, 2020

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 1 hr 26 min

Distributor:  STX Entertainment

 

 

 

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