Brahms: The Boy II or the sequel no one expected or wanted. I saw The Boy, which I enjoyed at home, and thought the story wrapped up quite neatly so I was curious to find out if lightning could strike twice. It had the same writer and director so it was not entirely out of the realm of possibility that the sequel would suck. I am a completist so I dutifully added it to my queue and got it as soon as it was available for home viewing.
Brahms: The Boy II occurs sometime after the first movie, which you do not have to see to understand this movie, and actually it may help if you have not seen the original because you will just go along with the story instead of referencing your prior knowledge. The first film deftly managed to offer a plausible explanation until it veered wildly in another direction, which did not retroactively ruin the movie and actually worked whereas the sequel completely reverses the original’s resolution. I actually do not have a problem with it, but the sequel is fighting the returning fans instead of rewarding them with another bonkers, left field, equally plausible resolution. Katie Holmes stars as the mother, and her family decides that they need to regroup in the guesthouse of the creepy house featured in the original. The son discovers and becomes attached to the creepy doll from the first film then nefarious shenanigans ensue. Once again, this film is realistic and has no black people because we would not do ANYTHING that the characters do in this movie.
Black mothers would not regularly engage in practical jokes with their kids if it involves their kids trying to scare them. Nope, someone could accidentally get hurt. We would have Googled the rental, discovered the shady history of the neighborhood and chosen a better location. We would not wander around property that was not ours, or we would have gotten shot during the walk before finding the creepy doll. Let’s say that we are having a good day. We are not bringing home a creepy doll then lovingly cleaning it on a kitchen surface that we use for food because that is nasty. And no black child is laying down rules in a house unless that child is paying bills. If electrical items started turning on automatically while no one was in the room, we would have left the house and the doll. We are not a monolith, but in my mom’s house, I would have been beat for a lot of the crap that kid pulled. I would not have been sent to my room EVER, and if I was sent to my room and left it without permission to get water or use the bathroom, I would have gotten in trouble for doing that because my mom would say, “Did I say that you could leave your room to get water or use the bathroom?” My mom is a strict constructionist.
While watching Brahms: The Boy II, I secretly wondered if I was watching a DC Universe alternate timeline movie similar to Brightburn if Batman’s parents did not die, and he was a villain, but nope the protagonist is supposed to be Holmes’ character. I like Holmes, and I do not have a real reason other than her face, her manner and her style. I have watched and enjoyed her performances in a few movies. I was initially hopeful about the film because her character initially has an interesting story arc. Mothers are notorious for putting aside their needs for their family even if they should not, and it is obviously serious. This movie has a good dad, but he is a bit of gaslighter at worst or minimizes his concerns because of inconvenience or gender bias. The movie builds on these themes, which are potentially intriguing and rife with material for a horror movie. What happens if a mom falls apart or keep getting her concerns hijacked by her kid? Even though intellectually I understood that a kid could be just as negatively affected by witnessing something as the person actually experiencing it, it annoyed me. It would have been great to flesh out how that resentment would manifest if you felt it, but were not permitted to express it. How would you reclaim center stage?
I did not want the mom to snap, be written off as crazy, but Brahms: The Boy II should have used the doll as a safe outlet to dump all the son’s negative characteristics into then given the mom permission to epically lose her shit and reclaim her power and her voice. The movie feels as if it is leading up to her having a showdown and waking up all the men and boys in her life from brushing aside her concerns. She needed to have a moment of vindication and catharsis, but nope, the guys in the movie were not the problem. The director and writer were. I kid you not! The denouement involves the son and the father taking dramatic and decisive action while she stands and talks. It is so lame, y’all. I completely wasted my time. It was the most anti-climactic, trite ending. If it was not for Holmes big name, this film could have worked if her character was not in it or fridged, and it was just the father. It would have possibly been better-leaner, more focused, less repetitive, a terrific reversal from the first film. The father absolutely needs to be there because the best scene in the film involves his family visiting, and you need to be in the United Kingdom to get back to the house.
Brahms: The Boy II features another potentially interesting theme that is briefly dropped near the denouement, a classic child abuse scenario where a child is trying to protect parents from abuser, but it is briefly discussed and abandoned. This theme also could have worked because it ties into the beginning and would require the mother and son to work together then succeed at overcoming an obstacle together. The family would be reunited, and it would feel earned.
If I had to say something positive about Brahms: The Boy II, no one is bothered by a boy playing with a doll, but they are bothered about how deep his relationship is with it, which is an important distinction so hurrah to not promoting gender norms. It is a film that absolutely falls like a souffle being prepared in a noisy room, but I can see it getting a slightly more favorable reception in the global pandemic context because even though the movie is not set in this time, the family almost acts as if they were because of their self-imposed exile to the country. Parents can relate to trying to interact with their kid and discovering it to be more daunting when it is twenty-four hours a day, and only can get a therapist by televisit.
Brahms: The Boy II is a disappointment. I recently saw another of the director’s films, The Devil Inside, so maybe the first movie was a fluke. Still he clearly loves horror films and chooses excellent premises just inconsistent execution. The writer has only been credited for writing in this wannabe franchise so it is too early determine her writing quality’s trajectory.