Brahms: The Boy II
Brahms: The Boy II falls completely flat in its desperate attempts to set up a potential franchise – and falls even harder when trying to conjure up even a shred of what could be considered to be frightening.
2016's The Boy was hardly one of the most memorable horror experiences in recent history, yet with a somewhat interesting premise, the film successfully found an audience, while also leaving next to no room for a sequel. Despite that, with Brahms: The Boy II the film begins with Liza (Katie Holmes) and her son Jude (Christopher Convery), who are the victims of a random burglary while Liza’s husband Sean (Owain Yeoman) is not present. The traumatic experience leaves both Liza and Jude with some serious ramifications upon their mental health. Liza can no longer sleep at night due to reoccurring nightmares calling back to the crime, whilst Jude has become mute, only conveying his thoughts by way of writing on paper. After deciding to take a vacation out in the country, Jude stumbles upon the titular Brahms which causes him to become increasingly linked with the doll.
To those familiar with the original film, the simple premise of the sequel already begins to crack when one takes the ending of the first film into account. The film does include a gruelling exposition dump to try to explain the drastic amount of retconning needed for the sequel to exist, yet it is in service of an increasingly dull film experience. If any tension was to be found with The Boy, it was due to the way in which the film constantly toyed with the idea of the doll truly being alive or if something darker was taking place. Brahms: The Boy II is quick to discard of any tension found in the original, as we quickly see the doll in question moving its head and changing expression – making it very clear than the doll is now, in fact, alive and yet again wishes to go over our protagonist Liza.
Katie Holmes serves no other real purpose within the narrative other than to be in shock at the supposed horror that begins to consume her family, as she appears to be utterly bored on screen. While the film does initially flirt with the idea of providing her character with some depth, this is pushed to the side in favour of scene after scene of nothingness. Despite the film calling it quits on keeping the narrative in the realm of reality, Brahms: The Boy II never allows itself to be anything more than a hollow retread of the original’s plot. That is until the film concludes on a bonkers finale that makes so little sense and clearly only exists in a bid to set up a Brahms franchise.
With zero suspense throughout its runtime, Brahms: The Boy II is a completely vapid and pointless film that does nothing more to establish how dead on arrival a Brahms franchise already is.
