the boy 2 movie review

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There has been an unexpected mini-trend lately in which horror sequels, not typically a strong subgenre, have been surprisingly strong creatively with films like “ Ouija: Origin of Evil ” and “ Annabelle: Creation ,” both better than the movies that preceded them. Perhaps this is what led someone to believe that “Brahms: The Boy II” was a good idea. This person was wrong.

Maybe that’s harsh, but at least that person was wrong with this version of a sequel that even fans of the original probably weren’t really expecting. Given that "The Boy II" arguably works better—and makes a tick more sense even—if you haven’t seen the original, if you’re one of those people turn away now because the ending will have to be spoiled to discuss the new one. You’ve been warned.

The first film was basically a modestly clever cheat, convincing viewers that it was a movie about a possessed doll and then twisting that narrative in the final scenes. The story of a woman who was tasked to take care of a doll as if it was a real boy, and became convinced that it was real only to find that there was a man living in the wall, had at least a bit of simple narrative thrust compared to the nonsensical places that “Brahms: The Boy II” ends up. It’s almost as if someone started the project by asking “How can we get crazier than the ending of the first movie?” And then worked back from there.

Sadly, even posing that question probably makes “Brahms” sound significantly more fun than it actually is. The truth is that it breaks a cardinal rule of genre filmmaking which is that if your film isn’t going to make much sense, it at least needs to be fun. A movie this boring that doesn’t cohere at all narratively is just dreadful. And the worst thing is that there’s a point in the final act when it feels like “Brahms” could have become the crazy movie it needed to at least be memorable, but then it just fizzles to one of those annoying non-endings that makes even less sense than the nonsense that preceded it.

Anyway, back to the story. After a home invasion that’s filmed just horrendously, a mother ( Katie Holmes ), her husband ( Owain Yeoman ), and their son Jude ( Christopher Convery ) move to a country estate that will be familiar to fans of the original. Actually, they move to a guest house on the grounds of that estate, which is only one of many bad decisions here because while the setting was actually an effective element of the first movie, you'll have no such luck here. On the first day there, Jude finds the doll known as Brahms buried in the woods—always a good sign when your kid finds a creepy doll buried with its clothes in a coffin in the creepy woods. But mom plays along. And because of the trauma of the attack on his mother that he witnessed, Jude has gone mute, and Brahms seems to open him up. And possibly make him crazy!

As Jude adopts a creepier posture and dead-eyed stares, mom starts to wonder if Brahms is possessed and ordering Jude around, and director William Brent Bell leans into the idea way more than the first movie that Brahms is animated. We see his eyes and head move in cartoonish, horribly rendered ways, although you keep telling yourself that it could be a product of mom’s trauma, which has been leading her to have a few hallucinations of her own. (And because you're trying to make the movie more interesting.) Things get more intense as Jude starts relaying how unhappy Brahms is with mom and dad. Finally, a creepy guy named Joseph ( Ralph Ineson ) wanders the grounds with a shotgun, and clearly has either a big secret or is just there for an exposition dump in the final act. (It turns out that he gets to do both.)

Clearly, this film shares some thematic elements with the original, including a woman traumatized by violence who may be going crazy, but almost all of the atmosphere is drained. It’s a film with alternating shots of Katie Holmes looking scared and the doll looking creepy. Rinse and repeat. And it becomes so tediously boring that your mind will wander. (I started to imagine an Annabelle vs. Brahms battle movie.) The biggest problem is that are are no stakes . It’s a ghost story with no ghosts; a slasher pic with no slashing; an atmosphere with no, well, you get it. It’s just a film that’s as blank as Brahms’ expression. And when it finally threatens to fill that space with something interesting? Roll credits before it even gets to 90 minutes. After all, they have to leave something for “The Boy III.”

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Brahms: The Boy II (2020)

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

Katie Holmes as Liza

Christopher Convery as Jude

Owain Yeoman as Sean

Ralph Ineson as Joseph

Anjali Jay as Dr. Lawrence

• William Brent Bell
• Stacey Menear

Cinematographer

• Karl Walter Lindenlaub
• Brian Berdan
• Brett Detar

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The Ending Of Brahms: The Boy II Explained

2016's The Boy was a middling horror flick redeemed by one heck of a surprise ending. After spending most of its runtime convincing both its characters and the audience that the movie's creepy doll, Brahms, was possessed by the spirit of a dead child, The Boy pulled out the rug from under everyone: The doll really was just a doll. The film's real villain was the real-life Brahms Heelshire, who didn't actually die but hid in the walls of his family's home for decades, living vicariously through the porcelain plaything.

It's a delightfully absurd and oddly elegant twist, and Brahms: The Boy II  desperately wants to recapture the same magic. As the title implies, Brahms — the doll, not the man — has somehow returned for the sequel, and a lot of the movie hinges on that mystery. After all, we saw the original Brahms die at the end of The Boy , so who's behind this new set of supernatural shenanigans?

Brahms: The Boy II  eventually offers an answer, and ends with a series of twists so ludicrous that they make the original look downright pedestrian. Do you have questions? Because we certainly do. A lot of them.

What is Brahms, exactly?

For better or worse, Brahms: The Boy II  completely undoes The Boy 's ending. The sequel wastes no time showing us that, despite what  The Boy  said, Brahms is much, much more than a porcelain doll. Almost as soon as he appears, Brahms begins moving of his own free will. He tells his new companion, the young trauma victim Jude, things that the kid couldn't possibly know. He flips over tables and rips up teddy bears.

However, it's not until the end of Brahms: The Boy II  that we learn the whole truth. As Jude's mother Liza, played by Katie Holmes, learns, the porcelain doll is the host for a malevolent entity that has been tearing families apart for centuries. Typically, a child adopts the doll, then commits a heinous murder. When questioned about their crimes, the kids have a simple answer: the doll made them do it. The human Brahms was one of the creature's victims. So is Jude, so is Ralph Ineson's sinister "groundskeeper" Joseph, and countless others.

At the end of Brahms: The Boy II , we even see Brahm's real face after Jude's dad, Sean, smacks the doll with a croquet mallet. Instead of shattering, the porcelain falls away to reveal a pint-sized Lovecraftian horror lurking underneath. Jude ends up throwing the the doll in the fire, but that's not the end of Brahms. As it turns out, evil toys aren't that easy to kill.

More than just a kid in a mask

Brahm's true nature isn't actually Brahms: The Boy II' s final reveal. After Jude, Sean, and Liza return to London, presumably recovered from the home invasion that made them flee to the Heelshires' old estate, the film unleashes a final twist. Alone in his room, Jude puts on a porcelain mask modeled after Brahm's face and looks in the mirror. Jude thinks Brahms will be very happy in his new home, he says — as long as Jude's parents remember to follow the rules.

If you're not sure what's happening here, recall Joseph's big info dump a little earlier. Brahms knew that Jude was coming. He told Joseph to bury the doll where Jude could find him. Joseph also says that Brahms and Jude will soon "become one." The implication seems to be that Brahms knew that his doll body would be destroyed and made plans to possess Jude, and is now cohabitating in Jude's body and mind.

During Brahms: The Boy II 's climax, when Jude is pointing the shotgun at Liza, the possession might've already taken place. It's clearly Brahms, not Jude, who's really speaking. When Sean smacks the doll, Jude seems to wake up, as if he was previously in a trance. Of course, there's another possible reading — maybe Brahms really is gone, and poor, mentally fragile Jude has simply developed a split personality based on the creature — but either way, Brahms lives on through the boy.

For Brahms, it's all about family

So now we know what Brahms does, but what does he want ? Quite simply, to be loved. In The Boy , Brahms forces the Heelshires and, later, Lauren Cohen's nanny, Greta, to follow a strict set of rules. The rules aren't malicious, though. They're simple. Brahms wants to listen to music at a certain time of day. He wants to be part of family meals. He wants a kiss goodnight.

In Brahms: the Boy II , Brahms makes Liza, Jude, and Sean follow similar rules. In both movies, he only lashes out when he's ignored or abused or when people threaten to separate him from his loved ones. As long as Brahms is treated with love and respect, he's docile. There has to be a reason why Brahms only latches on to families, after all. He wants to be part of one, and he'll stop anyone who gets in his way.

This probably explains why Brahms gives up on killing Sean and Liza, too. As Liza says while pleading for her life, what's a family without a mother? She (or possibly Jude) must've convinced Brahms that he'd be happier with a complete familial unit, at least at first. After all, if things go sideways, Brahms knows how to deal with things.

But maybe young Brahms isn't all that bad

Sure, he's a creepy doll, tiny demon, and serial killer, but hidden in the two The Boy movies is the implication that maybe, just maybe, Brahms can also function as a force for good. See, Brahms tends to latch on to trauma victims. In the first movie, Greta is rattled by an abusive relationship and mourning a miscarriage. Brahms: The Boy II  opens with a home invasion that leaves Liza a paranoid wreck and traumatizes Jude so badly that he won't even speak.

Joseph says that Brahms likes to prey on the mentally weak, but ironically, all of the characters actually get better through their association with Brahms, not worse. Greta essentially adopts the doll once she realizes (correctly, we know in hindsight) that he's alive, using him as a surrogate for the child she lost. In fact, in The Boy , the doll isn't even the bad guy. The real-life Brahms Heelshire is.

The trend continues in Brahms: The Boy II . Jude regains his ability to speak thanks to his bond with Brahms, and comes to rely on Brahms as a source of protection. After her encounter with Brahms, Liza learns how to stick up for herself. She gets her family back, and her nightmares and panic attacks disappear. Brahms might have a violent streak, but it turns out that he's also a pretty good therapist. Just don't make him angry.

The fate of Emily Cribbs, explained

Brahms: The Boy II 's big retcon explains the original movie's biggest unanswered question: Why did Brahms Heelshire kill his best friend in the first place? According to The Boy , Brahms and a young girl named Emily Cribbs were close friends who played together all the time. Unfortunately, Emily was murdered when Brahms was eight, and the boy was the prime suspect. In order to protect their son, the Heelshires faked Brahms' death in a fire and hid him the walls of their house, where he lived for over two decades.

But The Boy never says why young Brahms decided to get rid of Emily. The implication is that Brahms was crazy even before he was burned alive, but thanks to Brahms: The Boy II , we now have a much more satisfying explanation. It wasn't Brahms Heelshire's idea to kill Emily at all. It was the entity lurking inside that sinister doll who wanted her dead. Like Jude, Brahms was just the creature's instrument.

Brahms: The Boy II  even gives us a motive: the demon, or whatever it is, gets jealous very easily when anyone comes between him and his prey. If Brahms and Emily were such good friends — and going by the photos that Greta finds, they were — the creature probably wanted Emily out of the way so he could have Brahms all to himself. Poor Emily. The girl never stood a chance.

A time-tested horror franchise tradition

There's no way around it: No matter what you might think about Brahms: The Boy II , the way it completely retcons The Boy 's ending is kind of a bummer. Sure, there's something to be said for symmetry. The Boy played with the audience's expectations by revealing that the doll wasn't actually possessed, so making the "normal" Brahms turn out to be for-real haunted is a nice mirror image. Still, The Boy worked well on its own. It didn't need to be more complicated.

At least Brahms: The Boy II  isn't alone in this regard. By this point, revealing a bigger bad behind the original movie's big bad is a horror sequel staple. In Friday the 13th , the villain is Jason Voorhees' mother. It's not until Friday the 13th Part 2 that Jason himself takes center stage. In Psycho 2 , Norman Bates' mother — his real mother, not his adopted one — turns out to be the film's real killer. Scream 3 reveals that the real mastermind behind everything that happened in the franchise is Sidney's cousin, a character that didn't even appear until the third installment.

By making the doll, not Brahms Heelshire, the source of all evil in The Boy universe, writer Stacey Menear (who penned the script for both movies) is really just sticking to tradition. No, that doesn't make the retcon easier to swallow, but at least there's a good precedent for this sort of thing.

Where does the Boy franchise go from here?

The Boy was clearly designed as a one-and-done. By the time the movie is over, the bad guy is dead. The heroes have escaped. The doll is just a doll. There really isn't anywhere else to go.

That's fine for a single movie, but if you're trying to build a series it's a non-starter. Brahms: The Boy II  might've sacrificed a lot of the original's charm in order to set up future installments of the  Boy franchise, but now that the work is done the series could go anywhere. The most obvious place to take Brahms: The Boy II 's sequel would be to follow Jude in his creepy porcelain mask as he comes a real killer.

The Boy could also look backwards. As Brahms: The Boy II  established, Brahms has been causing havoc for hundreds of years. Plenty of families succumbed to Brahms' whims before the Heelshires. Lakeshore Entertainment could pump out prequels for years. On the other hand, maybe keeping it simple is best. Just have another unsuspecting family find a creepy doll out in the woods. Trouble is almost certain to follow.

Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

Brahms: The Boy II review – the sequel nobody expected

Brahms: The Boy II see the return of both director William Brent Bell and writer Stacey Menear, as they are joined by a new cast that includes Katie Holmes ( Batman Begins ), Owain Yeoman ( American Sniper ) and Christopher Convery ( The Girl in the Spider’s Web ) as we follow a new family that moves into Heelshire Mansion.

Brahms: The Boy II follows a family, mother Liza (Holmes), husband Sean (Yeoman), and son Jude (Convery), who have experienced a burglary gone wrong and look to try and rebuild after the trauma of the events leave Jude as a mute and Liza suffering nightmares about what happened. The house is one of the guesthouses on the same land as the Heelshire Mansion, and Jude discovers the Brahms doll, bringing it back to the house, with the parents seeing it as a chance for him to heal in his own way. When Jude gets more attached to the doll, it becomes clear the change in him, only the parents don’t know whether it is helping or not until they learn the truth behind the sinister doll.

Brahms: The Boy II follows up the original The Boy starring Lauren Cohan ( The Walking Dead ) with a trailer that only went against everything we saw in the first film. Now, this could have just been a decoy or an attempt to cash-in on the creepy doll era of horror we are going through, with the likes of the Annabelle franchise finally going strong, the multiple versions of Chucky out there, and even Puppet Master trying to make a return. Brahms: The Boy II does change the game created in the first film, which if we are honest has a much lighter tone for the first two thirds, with the babysitting job being set around the idea of looking after a doll, which might have seemed odd but offered up a romantic storyline for somebody who thought they hit the jackpot of easy jobs. This time we get a family who have experienced a trauma, needing to try and fix the aftermath between them, which is easily the best part of the film because it offers up a couple of potential paths the story could go down, be it Liza’s head injury causing more reaction or Jude just wanting something new to communicate with. This is where the problem lies: the story sets up a couple of potential endings which could be interesting and surprising but instead decides to try and cash in on something bigger, which changes everything we learned in the first film to give us a more franchise-ready story which doesn’t get close to the quality in the other aforementioned doll-centric movies.

Brahms: The Boy II shows that Katie Holmes is returning to the horror genre and along with Christopher Convery being very creepy are the best two performances in the film. Like most horror films the husband or father just doesn’t get enough to do other than being the good guy in arguments or not there when something creepy or scary happens. We do have one of the most annoying evil kids in any film, with limited screen time; you would just want to punch the kid for his actions.

Brahms: The Boy II is a horror that does give us the jump scares we are expecting, though we know when they will happen, without giving us enough suspense beforehand. The film attempts to give us a bigger mystery, which goes against what we learned, ending up getting the generic research scene which starts simple and only gets more in-depth as the film goes on, be it on the computer or through hearing stories, which only seems to make the original The Boy movie feel like an opening sequence to this one.

Overall Brahms: The Boy II is a generic horror mystery that is clearly trying to make itself into a franchise to try and compete with an Annabelle , only it decides to spin everything the first film had on its head and leave us all scratching our own heads in turn, largely with the reaction of why did we even watch the first film when we could have just started with this one.

Article by Jonathon Wilson

Jonathon is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Cut and has been an instrumental part of the team since its inception in 2017. Jonathon has remained involved in all aspects of the site’s operation, mainly dedicated to its content output, remaining one of its primary Entertainment writers while also functioning as our dedicated Commissioning Editor, publishing over 6,500 articles.

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• DVD & Streaming

Brahms: The Boy II

• Drama , Horror

Content Caution

In Theaters

• February 21, 2020
• Katie Holmes as Liza; Owain Yeoman as Sean; Christopher Convery as Jude; Ralph Ineson as Joseph; Anjali Jay as Dr. Lawrence

Home Release Date

• May 19, 2020
• William Brent Bell

Distributor

• STX Entertainment

Movie Review

When Londoners Liza and son Jude are attacked by masked intruders in the dead of night, the results are what you might expect. Jude is emotionally traumatized—leaving him perpetually cringing at any small disturbance and unable to communicate verbally. And Liza, feeling physically and emotionally battered, is plagued with headaches and nightmares, too.

Liza’s husband, Sean, decides they should make a change. Specifically, moving their family away from the constant reminders of the assault in their London flat. Soon, they head off to the country and rent a lovely guest house situated behind an old, empty manor.

Sure, that manor is rather crumbling and spooky looking. But it’s being renovated by its wealthy-but-absent owner, so there’s no need to worry over it. In fact, there’s no one even around, other than a stalwart groundskeeper who keeps vandals at bay.

It’s all good, and Liza and Jude can finally get some fresh air and wooded-country quiet. It’s a lovely place for Sean to get away and do his writing, too.  

Things do take an odd turn, though, when young Jude finds a half-buried, antique porcelain doll in the woods while the family is out on a walk. I mean, who would bury an old doll like that? And why ? Jude takes an instant liking to the dirt-encrusted thing, so Liza and Sean decide to take it home and clean it up for him to play with.

Yes, the child-sized doll is rather creepy looking with its blank, porcelain-smooth features and natty little suit. But Jude is suddenly more animated around it. And if a strange doll can help the boy break out of his frightened funk, well, maybe it’s worth keeping.

Jude’s therapist agrees. In fact, when Liza and Sean give the woman a call, she praises their choice and sends them some links that suggest dolls can be great ways for traumatized kids to work through their feelings.  

That choice initially seems to be a good one. Jude starts drawing more. He gives the doll the name Brahms . And the boy even writes out a list of made-up rules that will make the doll feel safe. Then Liza and Sean actually overhear Jude talking to the thing. That’s a major breakthrough!

Of course, objective observers looking in from the outside, might not be as excited about a boy and his creepy doll whispering secrets to each other. They might blanch a bit at a family following a doll’s rules. And they’d likely question whether it’s a good thing that a boy and his doll start dressing alike and looking alike.

In fact, any sane Londoner looking on would surely tap Liza and Sean on the shoulder and say …

“’S’cuse me, have either of you ever watched a horror flick on the telly?”

Positive Elements

Parents Liza and Sean obviously love their son and want to do what’s best for him. Common sense, however, doesn’t appear to be their strong suit.

Spiritual Elements

The first movie in this franchise ended with a real-world, physical and psychological reason for the creepy things that happened in it. This one, in contrast, aims more squarely at the idea of possession by a demonic spiritual entity.

At first, the story teases the suggestion that a battered Liza might be suffering from mental trauma, causing her to see things that aren’t really there. But that’s quickly tossed aside, and the doll’s movements and actions are tied directly to a dark spiritual presence. That evil entity moves the doll around, lifts a man aloft and smashes a table.

Liza finds evidence that many families have died in connection with this wicked spirit. In fact, when the porcelain doll’s face is smashed, we see a rotting, corpse-like thing underneath. Eventually, Jude and another person are spiritually possessed by the being.

Sexual Content

Liza wears a thin nightie on several occasions.

Violent Content

When masked thieves break into their flat, Liza and Jude are slammed into walls and manhandled. Liza attempts to fight back before being hit with a heavy object and knocked unconscious. After that, she has several nightmares in which she’s physically grabbed by the throat and slammed up against a wall.

As Jude is slowly possessed by Brahms, the boy’s favorite stuffed bear is torn apart. Then Jude draws pictures of a boy stabbing a dog and killing his parents. (They’re childish crayon sketches include splashes of red blood colored in.) We later see a dog that has indeed been killed and left gutted in the woods; its body is mangled and a bit bloody. Another corpse-like creature sports rotting flesh covered in lice. A young boy falls backward and is impaled through the shoulder on a small, broken and sharp-pointed post. Several adults grab the moaning and writhing child and take him to the hospital.

We see online stories about several families that were brutally murdered. A man gets hit in the face with a shotgun stock and knocked out. Later, that same man is lifted aloft and slammed into a wall on the other side of the room.

A living creature is thrown into a blazing furnace.

Crude or Profane Language

Two s-words are joined by a use of “h—” and a misuse of Christ’s name.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Liza and another woman drink wine while talking. Liza and Sean also have wine with their dinner.

Other Negative Elements

Jude’s visiting cousin is a bully who calls him a “nutter” and “mental” while pushing Jude around.

The Boy had little to praise back in 2016. It was barely palatable then, and any positives were thanks to a solid lead performance and a horror-story twist that was only plausible if you tried really, really hard.

However, you’ll have to squint even harder to find a message or meaning in this forgettable sequel. It starts off with a young, emotionally damaged boy finding a creepy, filth-covered porcelain doll buried in the woods, followed by his mom cheerily suggesting they should take it home with them. I mean, at this point, all bets are off. Even the most laissez-faire parent would likely say, “Step away from that nasty thing this instant!” Instead, this mom lets her son cuddle up to it like a pristine plushy, and he starts obeying its secretly whispered list of rules.

After that eye-rolling premise, this horror pic becomes less and less credible—not to mention and less and less watchable —by the second. In fact, its logic heads south with the same speed you’d expect a typical mom to head toward a trash bin with a plastic bag full of gunk-encrusted porcelain doll.

So, as a helpful reviewer, I’ll gently suggest that you step away from this nasty thing this instant, too.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Brahms: the boy ii, common sense media reviewers.

Lifeless, useless horror sequel has violence, jump scares.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

No real messages here, except, possibly: Don't dig

The characters are very mechanical, serve only to

A character is attacked, hit in head by two masked

Dialogue between troubled married couple includes

A couple uses of "s--t," a use of "hell," a use of

Characters drink wine during a family get-together

Parents need to know that Brahms: The Boy II is the sequel to the 2016 horror movie The Boy , about a creepy doll. Violence is the biggest concern and includes a woman being attacked and hit in the head by unseen male intruders (a child sees the whole thing). A dog is shown gutted, a bully is impaled…

Positive Messages

No real messages here, except, possibly: Don't dig up strange things in the woods. Bad things happen to good people without any rhyme or reason.

Positive Role Models

The characters are very mechanical, serve only to further the plot, so there's no one here to admire or emulate.

Violence & Scariness

A character is attacked, hit in head by two masked people; a child sees the whole thing. Gutted dog shown. Bullying. Bully falls backward on pointy wooden stake, piercing upper torso (he lives). Character throws hot candle wax in another's face, hits him with shotgun. Secondary character dies, impaled. A child aims the shotgun (it's not fired). Several jump scares. Child's drawings show blood, acts of violence. Nightmare sequences. Creepy imagery. Murder stories described in internet news search. Arguing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Dialogue between troubled married couple includes "you never let me touch you." Also hugs, sleeping in same bed, etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

A couple uses of "s--t," a use of "hell," a use of "oh my God." A bully says "shut up," "this sucks," "you're mental," "nutter."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink wine during a family get-together. A character mentions an "ice-cold beer." Liquor bottles displayed on a table.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Brahms: The Boy II is the sequel to the 2016 horror movie The Boy , about a creepy doll. Violence is the biggest concern and includes a woman being attacked and hit in the head by unseen male intruders (a child sees the whole thing). A dog is shown gutted, a bully is impaled on a pointy wooden stake (he survives), and another character dies. A man gets hot candle wax in the face and is hit with a shotgun (the shotgun is held by a young boy but never fired). There are also jump scares, nightmare sequences, creepy imagery, murder stories described in the news, and a child's drawings showing blood and violent acts. Language includes a couple uses of "s--t," plus "hell" and "oh my God," as well as a bully's mean taunts. Characters drink wine during a get-together. Sex isn't really an issue. Katie Holmes , Ralph Ineson , and Owain Yeoman star. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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They came...

Almost better than the first, what's the story.

In BRAHMS: THE BOY II, a mother, Liza ( Katie Holmes ), is attacked by burglars in front of her young son, Jude ( Christopher Convery ). The traumatic event causes Jude to stop speaking. So his father, Sean ( Owain Yeoman ), decides to move the family to the country to recuperate. They find a beautiful little house (the former guest house of the mansion where the events of The Boy took place) and settle in. Walking in the woods, Jude finds a doll buried in the dirt and digs it up. Jude and the doll, who's called Brahms, become inseparable. Jude announces that there are certain rules to be followed surrounding Brahms, and strange things start happening. Liza must find out what's really going on before the worst happens.

Is It Any Good?

Filled with lifeless characters, basic jump scares, and very little else, this useless horror sequel betrays whatever good ideas the 2016 original had in a poor attempt to create a monster franchise. While The Boy actually told a pretty good, moody story, Brahms: The Boy II ignores it in order to create a Freddy/Jason-like supernatural killer who can be brought back to life in any number of sequels. In other words, this is yet another movie that feels more like a cash-in than a story yearning to be told. And despite some atmospheric cinematography, the movie gets off to a very rough start, with mechanical characters that not even admirable attempts at acting can bring to life.

As Brahms: The Boy II crawls through its amazingly long-winded 86 minutes, it fails to build any sense of dread or give viewers the creeps. The only scares are groaningly typical, including sudden movements in a mirror, sudden "bang!"s on the soundtrack, and the doll opening its mouth really wide while creepy-crawly things fly out of it. (There are also several "it was only a nightmare" scenes.) The movie isn't even bold enough to include any shocks or slayings (except, astoundingly, a murdered dog); even an obnoxious bully gets off fairly easily. With an already crowded slate of evil, killer dolls (Chucky, Annabelle, etc.), perhaps it's best if Brahms goes back in the toy chest for good.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Brahms: The Boy II 's violence . How did it make you feel? How much is shown and/or not shown? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

What's the appeal of scary movies ?

What's the relationship like between Jude and his parents? What happens when they disagree? How is this similar to (or different from) times you've disagreed with your parents (or children)?

What were your feelings toward the bully character? How is he dealt with? What other ways are there of dealing with bullies?

How does this sequel compare with the 2016 original?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 21, 2020
• On DVD or streaming : April 3, 2020
• Cast : Katie Holmes , Owain Yeoman , Christopher Convery
• Director : William Brent Bell
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : STX Entertainment
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 86 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : violence, terror, brief strong language and thematic elements
• Last updated : December 23, 2023

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‘Brahms: The Boy II’ Review: A Sequel No One Needed Inside a Thriller No One Will Understand

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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Confusion is baked right into the title. Four years after “ The Boy ” scared up a few bucks at the box office, director William Brent Bell and screenwriter Stacey Menear return with a new vision of what fresh terrors said boy (he’s a doll, okay, why did no one just call this movie “The Doll” and be done with it?) will enact on yet another unsuspecting family. Why “Brahms”? That’s the doll’s name, or the boy’s name (there’s also a boy in the first film, kind of), which might remind moviegoers of the nutso line-blurring in “The Boy.” However, “Brahms” also indicates what Bell and Menear really hope to accomplish: a full retcon of the original that does away with a dizzying amount of given information in service to a cheap sequel and the possibility of continuing a franchise for a film that never expected have one.

There wasn’t much original in Bell and Menear’s first crack at the creepy-doll horror genre, but “The Boy” had a sense of humor and a grasp on its wackily warped mythology that earned a few real chills and a couple of genuine laughs. None of that for “ Brahms: The Boy II ”; instead, it tucks into trauma, and the divide is so sharp that savvy audiences might wonder if some penny-pinching executive took a wholly unrelated spec script and tried to make it conform to Brahms’ icky contortions.

If only the film itself was that twisted! “Brahms: The Boy II” opens with some promise as a horrifying home invasion damages both Liza ( Katie Holmes ) and her cute kid Jude (Christopher Convery), setting up solid character work and a sense of unease that goes beyond the dull moments of “look, here is a creepy doll” that sledgehammers the rest of the film. Liza is a refreshingly pragmatic and strong leading lady, the kind of horror character who fights back (and means it) and is smart enough to to say, “Look, that is a creepy doll” (and definitely mean that, too).

Jude has a lot going on, from the “selective mutism” that he slips into after the attack to an eventual semi-possession by Brahms that might lead another young performer into more broad territory (hell, give Convery an award for how many times he has to carry Brahms around, lightly telegraphing his growing horror with every slump of his shoulders). The family unit is completed with Owain Yeoman as husband and father Sean (apparently last to the personality buffet, he’s easily overshadowed by co-stars both human and porcelain). Intent on reclaiming some semblance of normalcy after their trauma, the trio decamp for a country house (it’s on the same grounds as the same mansion in which “The Boy” played out, but so charming that Liza and Sean don’t Google its screwed-up history before moving on in). Here’s hoping that the fresh air and sprawling nature will reset them all.

Then Jude finds Brahms. The doll is an undoubtedly creepy vessel, but there’s also something inherently funny about his pale visage, and for every shot of him that chills, others stir up titters. Even his first appearance is darkly hilarious, his little pale hand sticking out of the ground like a teensy corpse begging for help. That Jude, a kid in an admittedly weird place in his life, would spark to the obviously deeply haunted toy, isn’t much of a hard sell, and Menear’s script works overtime to ensure Liza and Sean feel as if they need to go along with their tiny new houseguest. Jude starts talking again, but only to the doll, and that’s enough of a positive change to push his parents to accept Brahms as some kind of inanimate therapist.

Then things get weird, and the family begins to corrode at even faster clip. Liza’s mental and emotional state makes for a smart counterpoint to the whims of the bonkers doll, but Bell and Menear approach it from an awkward vantage: We know Brahms brings evil with him, and so while we might have some doubts around Liza’s perspective (a series of shoddy nightmare sequences remind us of her apparent unreliability as a narrator), we’re never not on her side. That’s sort of how sequels work, with built-in knowledge that can be expanded upon, not condensed and confused. However, that’s not how “Brahms: The Boy II”works, preferring to weave Liza and Jude’s trials (which are good enough for their own original movie) inside a mythology that gets messier by the minute.

There aren’t that many minutes to mess up, but the film manages to make it feel much longer. At just 86 minutes, “Brahms: The Boy II” should fly by, but the film lurches forward with its momentum punctuated by bad jump scares and odd flashback sequences. It all leads up to an assortment of exposition-heavy scenes that clarify nothing: Yes, you might remember that the first film was really about a creepy man  (a former boy) who used a very creepy doll to, well, basically be creepy, but what if it was really the doll  pulling all the strings? Fans of the first film won’t get it, newbies won’t understand it, and no one will be surprised when it all adds up to an ending that dares wink at the possibility of yet another film. Maybe that one will be built as well as the indestructible doll that haunts this incoherent franchise.

“Brahms: The Boy II” is now in theaters. 

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Brahms: The Boy 2 Review

The awkwardly titled,  Brahms: The Boy 2 , sees the the original movie’s director, William Brent Bell, returning to the antics of the off-putting creepy doll known as Brahms. This time with an all new cast of characters to be terrorized by the pale figurine’s mischievousness. But while the first Boy movie managed memorability thanks to its rambunctious twist ending, the sequel commits the crucial sin of being, quite simply, boring.

After a vicious home invasion attack on Liza ( Katie Holmes ) and son Jude ( Christopher Convery ) while her husband ( Owain Yeoman ) was away, the family decides to leave behind the wounds from the city and move into a secluded mansion in the woods. Jude’s mental shock from the assault has left him mute, but when he finds Brahms the doll buried in the land near their new home, Liza can’t shake the feeling of a sinister influence from her son’s new playmate. Are the peculiar happenings around the house a result of Jude acting out his psychological stress or is there a spiritual malevolence within Brahms?

Bell demonstrates moments of legitimate talent behind the camera here with some genuinely well produced shots throughout. The opening home invasion sequence starts by building tension with the ominous shadow of a burglar under the transparent stairs that an unaware Holmes walks down. The lighting plays an affective roll and the boxlike structure of the family’s swank apartment showcases the claustrophobic trauma their city living leaves them with. And the closeup shot (as seen in the trailer) of Brahms and Jude’s faces while the doll and the boy meet for the first time is an intriguing reflection of the blank slate that Jude’s traumatic encounter has left in him.

Unfortunately, all the camera pizzazz in the world couldn’t save the fact that the plot stays mind numbingly stagnant, almost stubbornly so, as if it feels insecure in stepping out of its overdone genre trappings. It meanders while hitting all the familiar beats and delivers no shortage of jump scaring. A horror movie can get away with a handful of standard jump scare fare, but not only does  Brahms deliver way too many, it makes them its bread and butter. And it does this all while pulling the phew, it was just a bad dream card all too often, to the point of being a fall back from building any real tension or stakes. These dream sequences are mostly made to emphasize Liza’s mental anguish from her survived home invasion encounter, but it gets to a point of hitting them over the audience’s head to fill a runtime and check some conventional scare boxes.

Buried beneath the saturated mundaneness lies a stimulating seed about a mother’s insecurity for being unable to protect her son and the harbored guilt she bares in being responsible for his mental damage. But not only does the fruitless script keep this idea from growing, the dull casting provides little assistance as well. Katie Holmes delivers all that you might expect out of her, but she’s also never given a proper moment of emotional confrontation to let the audience form a real connection to her inner turmoil. Christopher Conveyer as young Jude portrays a numbingly banal version of horror’s latest creepy child. Ralph Ineson shows up as an offbeat groundskeeper. His energetic performance, especially in the final act, is a curious one to say the least. A miss for his talent given his much more effectively withheld work as the father in 2015’s The Witch . But it doesn’t help that the character he’s playing here is one of the most by the numbers versions of eccentric exposition guy for family in haunted house .

Any hope that the climax can make this humdrum by-product of every other scary doll movie worth the watch is shot down with a substantial letdown of an ending. The way the evil of the nefarious Brahms is overcome feels less like an insightful challenge for the characters and more like an excuse to end the tedious endeavor as quick as can be. At this point, a sincere confrontation is in order for a mother and her child, but little weight is held in their moment while little Jude’s face is covered in a Brahms-like mask. It all amounts to stuffy lifelessness.

This one just hit theaters this weekend. Check it out if you want to see the psychological horror from the first movie completely undone with no subtlety whatsoever, Katie Holmes throw burning candle wax at a weird guy’s face, identical matching clothing on a little boy and his doll and the gruesome outcome when a dog thinks it can fuck with Brahms.

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Brahms: The Boy II Review: An Unnecessary Sequel That Undermines The Original

Horror movies and sequels go hand in hand. Depending on the franchise (I'm looking at you, Saw , Friday The 13th and Halloween ), there can be numerous avenues sequels can take, with varying degrees of quality. Horror movie or not, it’s usually better to let the dead rest, and such is the case with Brahms: The Boy II . Overdone jumps cares, poor performances and disregard of the original make Brahms: The Boy II a forlorn attempt at a sequel.

Brahms: The Boy II is the latest sequel to 2016’s The Boy , a film directed by William Brent Bell. (There are spoilers for The Boy here, but not for Brahms: The Boy II , so venture forth accordingly.) In The Boy , Greta Evans ( Lauren Cohan ) works for the wealthy Heelshires, who have a supposedly haunted doll that must be cared for like a real person. Eventually, it’s revealed the doll isn’t actually haunted. Rather, it’s the once-thought dead Heelshire son, also named Brahms, who has been living in the walls and tormenting guests via the doll. In the end, Brahms is presumably killed, only later revealed to be piecing together his old destroyed doll.

In short, the supposedly haunted doll is not haunted. Brahms is just the toy of a crazy man child, also named Brahms, living in the walls.

Enter 2020’s Brahms: The Boy II . William Brent Bell is back as the director and so is that damn doll. Liza ( Katie Holmes ) lives a busy life in the city with her husband Sean (Owain Yeoman) and their son Jude (Christopher Convery). One night, when Sean is working late their family home is broken into by two masked men. Liza suffers a serious head wound while defending Jude, but survives. After the attack, Liza lives with frequent migraines and Jude takes a vow of silence communicating only with handwritten notes. Sean and Liza are both at odds with one another trying to get over the home invasion and Jude's silence. In search of a solution, they decide to spend some time in the country to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

The trip starts off great, but as the family explores the woods, they discover the old Heelshire mansion abandoned. Shortly after, Jude comes across the Brahms doll buried deep in the woods. He quickly bonds with Brahms and even starts talking to him, but not his parents. From there, things start to get spooky as Jude insists they follow Brahms' rules or else.

Brahms: The Boy II is full of cheap, shallow scares.

Although there are a few creepy scenes, Brahms: The Boy II relies too heavily on telegraphed jump scares. Every ten minutes or so, like clockwork, there is some sort of knee jerk ‘boo!’, whether that comes from a dog, the doll or even Jude himself. After the first five of these scares or so, you get bored and can spot them coming from a mile away.

There is some redeemable horror here though. Any way you look at it, that doll is horrifying. It’s just too realistic that it heads into uncanny valley, which Director William Brent Bell uses to the film's advantage. There are subtle effects, such as the doll slowly smiling in the background, that really enhance the horror. However, they are used at every opportunity and become far too telegraphed, just like jump scares throughout the film.

Poor performances out of Christopher Convery and Owain Yoeman hurt Brahms: The Boy II.

In Brahms: The Boy II , the subtlety ends with the doll. Most of the performances from the cast are downright bad. On one end, there’s Christopher Convery, who doesn’t even speak for the majority of the film. Nearly all interactions with his character boil down to him writing ‘Brahms didn’t like that’ and then scowling at his parents. While creepy at first, this quickly gets old.

Then there is Sean, the father, played by Owain Yeoman. He puts on an exceptionally indifferent performance. His lines are delivered as nonchalantly as one would leave for a pack of smokes and never come back. You start to wonder if this guy really even cares about Jude or Liza, or just his work. He calls his son 'mate,' like he’s some old high school buddy. It’s jarring and odd to be honest.

Katie Holmes gives a serviceable performance as a traumatized mother. However, the real star of the show is Ralph Ineson, who plays Joseph the groundskeeper. He comes out of absolutely nowhere and gives a gravelly voiced performance reminiscent of his character in The Witch . It’s pretty good and one of the few redeemable aspects of Brahms: The Boy II .

Brahms: The Boy II takes everything that made the original special and throws it out the window.

The biggest issue with Brahms: The Boy II isn’t the cheap scares or the lackluster performances. The sequel takes everything that made The Boy special and throws it all out of the window. To take the approach that something supernatural was real all along is arguably just as creepy, if not more so. That’s why films like Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre are so horrifying. These are real situations that could actually happen. The Boy was a bait and switch exercise that was amplified by the reveal of Brahms living in the wall. There was no supernatural element at all, the horror was in something real that appeared supernatural. That established plot is completely abandoned this time around.

Brahms: The Boy II is far too reliant on the supernatural to glaze over plot holes and render character motivations useless. It just feels like lazy writing and a detraction from its predecessor. The disregard for the magic of The Boy , poor performances and unoriginal scares ultimately make Brahms: The Boy II just another failed horror sequel.

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'Brahms: The Boy 2' Review: A Movie So Boring It's Almost Impressive

No one walks into a movie called  Brahms: The Boy 2 expecting a masterpiece, but for the love of Brahms, why is this thing so  boring ?  William Brent Bell 's follow-up to his mostly okay  The Boy has a new group of people being plagued by a tiny antique doll, and expands the mythology, taking it to increasingly silly places. But silly would be fine if  The Boy 2 was at least a little bit entertaining. It's not.

The Boy  was an atmospheric thriller in which a young woman became convinced a creepy, Jared Kushner-looking doll was alive. The doll was being cared for, and treated like a real boy, by an elderly couple who lost their son, Brahms, in a fire. Did Brahms' spirit inhabit the doll after his death? Nope. In a surprise twist,  The Boy revealed that the doll was not alive at all. Instead, the  real Brahms was still alive – and hiding in the walls of his big, spooky mansion. With that twist in mind, you might think a sequel would be a tricky thing. But  Brahms: The Boy 2 comes up with a simple solution: It more or less reboots itself and throws in a bunch of new developments. Because here it seems very much like Brahms  is alive – turning his head, twitching his eyes, pulling a spooky smile. Or is it all an illusion? And do you even care? The Boy 2 opens with Liza ( Katie Holmes ) being brutally attacked during a late-night home invasion. Liza's son Jude ( Christopher Convery ) witnesses the assault, and it traumatizes him so much that he stops talking, communicating via words in a sketchpad. Hoping for a fresh start, Liza and husband Sean ( Owain Yeoman ) pack up and move themselves and Jude to a country house. The gorgeous, secluded house was originally built as a guest house for a much bigger manse, and wouldn't you know it, that bigger place just happens to be the big, spooky mansion that Brahms used to live in.

During a walk in the woods, Jude discovers Brahms the doll buried in a shallow grave. Like any normal child, Jude decides he wants to keep this filthy, creepy doll, and his parents are fine with that. And while Liza is immediately put-off by the site of Brahms, she starts to think keeping the doll around might be a good thing when she and Sean overhear Jude talking to it. But the enthusiasm quickly drains the more Liza begins to suspect the doll might be alive. And to make matters worse, Jude starts to dress just like Brahms, and may or may not be responsible for some terrible deeds. Or not. Really, it doesn't matter, because nothing in this movie has weight.

Anytime  The Boy 2 suggests that  something might be about to happen, it pulls back. There are countless fake-out scares here – where someone completely harmless steps into frame and the soundtrack blasts out a loud, booming note. As for genuine scares, uh...well, there aren't any. There are one or two shots of Brahms that are somewhat creepy – there's one particular scene where Liza is checking the doll for some sort of identifying marker, and while Brahms' face is out-of-focus, we can see a small smile creep onto his doll lips. It's effective, and you wish like hell there were more moments like that in this exercise in drudgery.

Brahms isn't offensively bad. You almost wish it were because at least that would inspire some sort of passionate response. Instead, the narrative just listlessly plods along, requiring Katie Holmes to spend long, silent scenes having a staring contest with a doll.  Ralph Ineson shows up as a suspicious groundskeeper, and his booming voice and looming presence liven things up slightly, but he's not in the movie enough to salvage things. And while the first  Boy made the most of its gothic sets, everything in  Brahms looks flat and bland.

The first  Boy was all about the suggestion that Brahms might be alive, but  The Boy 2 throws that completely out the window, to the point where your probably better off going into this sequel  without having seen the original. And while scary living dolls have a good track record in horror films,  The Boy 2 has nothing to offer. It's a film completely devoid of energy, or atmosphere. It's so boring at times that it's almost impressive. When you pull away from  Brahms you realize that almost  nothing happens here. And we're not talking in the playful,  Seinfeld "show about nothing" sense. This is a motion picture void of motion.

/Film Rating: 4 out of 10

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Before  The Invisible Man  surprised audiences and proved that horror movies aren't dead in 2020 , there was Brahms: The Boy II , which received largely negative reviews.

At the time of writing this article,  Brahms: The Boy II  is sitting at an abysmal 9% from Rotten Tomatoes. It's faring a little better with fans at 42%. The film joins the rank of early 2020 horror movie releases  such as  Fantasy Island and  The Turning  that are sitting near or at single digits on Rotten Tomatoes.

Related:  The Boy: Brahms' Origin & Powers Explained

The film continues the story the excessively creepy porcelain doll Brahms. After surviving a home invasion, Liza, Sean, and their son Jude take a trip to the English countryside in order to begin the healing process. Little does the family know that they happen to be staying in the guest house of the Heelshire property, which was the location of the events in 2016's  The Boy . When taking a walk in the woods, Jude finds Brahms buried in the brush. Liza allows Jude to keep the doll, as a companion to help him cope with the trauma from the earlier break-in. As Jude's behavior takes a turn for the worse and unusual incidents begin to happen around the house, Liza begins to wonder about the doll's true nature. While its predecessor didn't fare too well with critics,  Brahms: The Boy II  managed to receive even worse reviews.

Brahms: The Boy 2 Is Simply a Bore

The Boy is by no means a great horror movie, but it is a lot of fun. The initial premise of Lauren Cohan's Greta being hired to nanny a porcelain doll is kooky enough to catch the audience's attention. But the final act twist revealing that the doll is not possessed, but controlled by a person living within the house's walls is downright wild. The sequel loses this energy. It takes itself too seriously, and becomes a mediocre horror film that's been made time and time again.

Braden Roberts, Cinemablend

Every ten minutes or so, like clockwork, there is some sort of knee jerk ‘boo!’, whether that comes from a dog, the doll or even Jude himself. After the first five of these scares or so, you get bored and can spot them coming from a mile away.

Chris Evangelista, Slash Film

It’s a film completely devoid of energy, or atmosphere. It’s so boring at times that it’s almost impressive. When you pull away from  Brahms  you realize that almost  nothing  happens here.

Brahms Was Unnecessarily Retconned In The Sequel

Brahms: The Boy II  loses the energy of its predecessor because it retcons the most interesting element of  The Boy . The idea of setting up a story of a possessed porcelain doll, only to later reveal Brahms was just a regular doll operated by a deranged man living in the walls is goofy, but borderline brilliant. Even the trailers for  Brahms: The Boy II revealed that the doll is now some sort of supernatural being , which took away some fan interest. This decisions creates a confusing timeline from one movie to the next.

Jonathan Sim, Vocal

It fails to expand on anything from the first movie, as it merely retcons those events instead. The characters aren't the same, and this movie makes the odd choice of keeping some ideas and scenes from the first film and disregarding others.

Caillou Pettis,  Battle Royale With Cheese

What’s also incredibly shocking about this massive retcon is the fact that this sequel is penned by the same screenwriter of the first, and is directed by Bell, who also helmed the first. Why they would retcon the biggest twist of the original movie is beyond me. It’s actually a massive disappointment and is going to anger anybody that loved that twist ending.

Reviews for  Brahms: The Boy II  are overwhelmingly, if not universally, negative. One of the more positive reviews found a few minor things to praise.

Niel Soans, Times of India

Ralph Ineson is effective as Joseph in his brief role. The movie’s cinematography and production design succeed in creating an eerie atmosphere throughout.

Brahms: The Boy II   likely retconned its predecessor to open up the doors for a cinematic universe of sorts, just as  The Conjuring  has done. However, with reviews like these, a continuation seems unlikely.

More:  Brahms: The Boy 2 Ending Explained

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Movie Review: The Boy (2016)

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• --> January 28, 2016

There are very few horror movie theater going trips that stick with me as incredible experiences. “ Paranormal Activity ” floored me with its outstanding ability to silence a packed theater, bringing to reality the idiom, “You could cut the tension with a knife.” The surprise ending of “Saw” thrilled me so much, I went to see it a second time in the theater — that very same night. Nothing tops being able to see “The Exorcist” on the big screen in re-release, and enduring my friend’s fingernails digging into my arm the entire time. And while I can now add my experience of seeing The Boy in the theater to this exclusive list, I cannot say it’s for the same reasons. The Boy is not a quality horror movie, but as someone who has seen a lot (A LOT) of bad horror movies, I can still say that it’s been a long time since I’ve had this much enjoyment watching a bad movie (that doesn’t have three silhouettes at the bottom of the screen).

Lauren Cohan of “The Walking Dead” fame, plays Greta Evans, a young American woman who arrives at a beautiful, haunting, Hill House-type home in England to serve as the new nanny for the Heelshire family. She is greeted by Mrs. Heelshire (Diana Hardcastle, “ The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ”) who carries herself with prototypical English stature and Mr. Heelshire, (Jim Norton, “ Jimmy’s Hall ”) who seems like a kindly gentleman who lovingly caters to his wife’s demands. The older couple bring her into a library where she meets their son, Brahms. As you’ve already been told by the film’s trailers, Brahms is a porcelain doll that the Heelshires carry around the house, feed, and read to. Brahms loves poetry and listening to his music very loudly, Greta is told. She’s also given instructions about the house which require her to never throw away food and to regularly check the traps outside for rats and vermin. As her employers leave for their first vacation in years, they provide Greta with a list of rules for caring for Brahms, and Mrs. Heelshire tells her that if she’s good to Brahms, he will be good to her in return.

As she gets accustomed to her new role as nanny, Greta is kept company by Malcolm (Rupert Evans, “The Canal”), the man who delivers groceries once a week. Greta is, at first, completely unnerved by the doll, and keeps Brahms on a chair in his room, but after a series of unsettling events, she begins to follow Brahms’ rules — she dresses him, reads to him, and kisses him goodnight before he goes to sleep. She grows attached to Brahms, and takes her role as nanny very seriously; after all, as Mrs. Heelshire told her, he had gone through many nannies previously, and now he has chosen Greta to care for him. But, of course, there’s more to the story than that.

Without getting into spoilers, allow me to say that The Boy is one of the strangest horror films I’ve seen in a long time. The first half is your standard creepy doll movie — things disappear or move on their own when Greta isn’t looking, and Brahms’ empty glass eyes certainly serve their creepy little purpose. I don’t have an issue with scary dolls, so this didn’t have the effect on me that I expect it does on people who nurture that particular phobia, but I do get wrapped up in tales of the supernatural, so when bizarre things begin occurring, I was paying attention.

Director William Brent Bell and writer Stacey Menear have put together a movie that relies heavily on old standards like nightmares, dark and shadowy rooms (not to mention the attic), and backstories that include “odd” or “downright strange” children. They focus quite a bit on how playful Brahms is, and underscore the tension with descriptions of what the real Brahms was like. One of the more notable elements of the film is how quickly Greta changes in attitude towards Brahms; she turns on a dime from goofing on her role (feeling she’s taken advantage of the old couple) to lovingly carrying the doll around the house. Stranger still is how we, the audience, grow to share her allegiance to Brahms — no, really — and you’ll know exactly what scene I mean when you see it. The scenes that follow only grow stranger.

I’ve seen numerous movies to which I can compare The Boy , none of which I’ll name because there’s still enjoyment to be had from the reveal. Those unnamed movies, however, do, in part, what The Boy does and are much better at doing it. Nonetheless, my experience of seeing it with a crowd parallels some of my most fond memories of seeing well-made films in the theater. A woman approached me as the credits rolled and asked if I’d ever seen anything so creepy. I had to admit I definitely had — and did not consider The Boy to be creepy at all, though I’m glad it worked for her — but I did confess that I enjoyed one of the hardiest laughs I’ve had in a while.

I can’t say with a straight face that The Boy is a good horror movie, but I can definitely say I had a good time. Personally, I think that alone makes it worth a look.

Tagged: babysitter , child , doll , family , rules

School teacher by day. Horror aficionado by night.

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'Movie Review: The Boy (2016)' have 2 comments

January 28, 2016 @ 3:29 pm sasha

So The Boy is one of those so bad it’s good movies? I had it crossed off my list–I may now have to uncross it!

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March 30, 2016 @ 12:08 am hornbleu

I caught this as a ‘rental’ and all I can say is it has one of the weirdest twists I’ve ever seem.

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Benedict Cumberbatch's Disturbing but Poignant ‘Eric' Is About Much More Than a Missing Boy: TV Review

In Netflix's limited series "Eric," from screenwriter Abi Morgan ("Shame," "The Hour"), famed puppeteer Vincent Anderson (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his wife, Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann), are forced to grapple with what-ifs when their 9-year-old son, Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe), vanishes. While Cassie leans on the NYPD and Missing Persons Squad detective Michael Ledroit (a compelling McKinley Belcher III), Vincent begins to unravel. Desperate to find Edgar, he grows increasingly volatile as he becomes obsessed with his son's drawings of a monster puppet named Eric. Though Vincent is convinced Edgar will return home if he can bring Eric to life, the show goes beyond the anguish of missing person cases. "Eric" forces its audience to look in the mirror and face down the bigotry and biases we weaponize against each other.

"Eric" opens in 1985, 48 hours after Edgar's disappearance. The Andersons sit at a table facing the press, pleading to the public for their son's return. At the urging of a detective, Vincent leans into the microphone and says, "Edgar, if you're watching this … I'm sorry, buddy." This eerie message lingers in the air as the series pulls back in time to two days earlier. Edgar wanders backstage at Vincent's popular children's program, "Good Day Sunshine." Vincent's personality, however, couldn't be more at odds with his profession. Cruel, callous and dismissive, he is the opposite of sunny. As Episode 1 pushes forward toward the morning of Edgar's disappearance, the audience learns that Vincent's temperament extends beyond the workplace, seeping into the home he shares with Cassie and Edgar.

When Edgar fails to arrive at school, Ledroit is put on the case. Still haunted by a lost Black teen, Ledroit is driven to get the Andersons a different outcome. This is no easy feat in a city determined to discard what is deemed unsavory, and everyone involved with the case is hiding something. As Ledroit chases down leads, slowed by inadequate technology, red tape and his own pain, the horrors of NYC's government policies come to light. It becomes clear that misconduct and violence at the highest levels are complicit in harming the city's youngest and most vulnerable citizens.

Though extremely difficult to watch, "Eric" is outstanding. Hoffmann, in particular, is gripping in her depiction of a mother cracking under the weight of what she's lost, and a husband who refuses to connect with her. Across six episodes, the show unpacks the pitfalls of addiction and self-loathing while centering unjust outcomes born of racism, homophobia and capitalistic greed. But there is one glaring issue. As Vincent becomes unhinged, he begins to visualize a real-life Eric who taunts him and follows him around. Though the furry blue monster is a manifestation of the puppeteer's inner torment, it's a distraction. The tone of "Eric" is as gritty and dark as its 1980s New York City setting. Therefore, a visualized version of the puppet undermines the somberness of the series. Moreover, Cumberbatch, returning to television after a stint in blockbuster films, is capable of depicting Vincent's self-destruction without forcing something so literal on the audience.

Ultimately, "Eric" is about much more than a missing boy. The series revolves around corruption and inhumanity, topics that will thunder in the viewer's mind long after the final episode. Disturbing but profound, the show asks why only certain people are allowed happy endings and what that means for those who won't ever see justice.

"Eric" premieres May 30 on Netflix .

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Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, an... Read all Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run. Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.

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‘The Beach Boys’ Review: Rock Doc Focuses More on Good Vibrations Than New Insights

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The Big Picture

• Heartfelt interviews with Brian Wilson & Al Jardine provide vulnerability & honesty from The Beach Boys.
• The documentary is a love letter to Brian Wilson's genius and celebrates the band's iconic sound.
• The film is entertaining with a great soundtrack, but lacks depth in covering the band's later years.

As an unabashed fan of the iconic band, it’s more than safe to say that I was highly anticipating The Beach Boys documentary . Rock docs have become increasingly common in the streaming era, and while a fair share of films feel too sugary and superfluous, you can at least expect to hear some great tunes. It was only a matter of time before the Southern Californian band got an official documentary of their own, especially considering their increasingly fascinating history.

While the incredibly underrated biopic Love & Mercy gave us an inside look into the mind of Brian Wilson , both in the ‘60s and the ‘80s, this documentary follows a much more traditional format. Frank Marshall & Thom Zimny ’s new doc recounts the rise of the iconic music group, the creation of the masterpiece known as Pet Sounds , and what led to their devastating split. Anyone who knows anything about The Beach Boys likely raised their eyebrows when they learned that the ever-polarizing Mike Love would be highly involved in the film, although it's hard not to be excited about something new coming from one of the greatest American bands to ever take the stage.

The Beach Boys (2024)

The Beach Boys is a celebration of the legendary band that revolutionized pop music, and the iconic, harmonious sound they created that personified the California dream, captivating fans for generations and generations to come.

'The Beach Boys' Doc Is Enjoyable, Despite Playing Things a Little Too Safe

The Beach Boys have a vast history, one that can be stretched out far beyond this movie’s nearly two-hour runtime. For the majority of the film, this doc is highly entertaining and heartfelt , particularly in the moments where it allows the band members to get vulnerable in their interviews. It’s hard not to shed a tear when seeing Al Jardine speak about his friendship with the Wilson brothers or during the brief but exceptional interview with Brian Wilson in modern-day. Other moments where the musicians talk about how their initial jealousy of The Beatles led to some of their greatest work also feel much more humbling.

It’s true that documentaries like The Beach Boys can often feel very sanitized, wanting to portray their subjects as saints who have never held an ounce of cynicism towards anyone or anything. Many of the interviews with Love do exert that feeling, including a moment where Love practically claims that he saved the music group . Other moments feel more raw and honest, including a moment where Love talks about some of his regrets as to how things went down between him and Brian Wilson.

Throughout the documentary, you can’t help but wonder if Dennis Wilson ’s interactions with Charles Manson will be brought up, especially since this is a Disney+ original . Manson and Dennis' awkward relationship is discussed but not until the documentary’s last half-hour, where Brian and Love’s legal battles, Dennis and Carl Wilson ’s deaths, and the band’s string of flops are also touched on, but glossed over. That isn’t to say that the documentary sidelines every single story that may be perceived as too dark, as the abuse the brothers suffered at the hands of their father and manager, Murry Wilson, is given some time in the limelight, as well as talking about Murry’s abusive upbringing.

The main fault of The Beach Boys is that as extensive as the film is about the first decade and a half of the musicians’ careers, the finale feels rushed and dissatisfying , outside of one heartfelt moment towards the end that you’ll just have to see for yourself.

‘The Beach Boys’ Doc Is a Love Letter to Brian Wilson’s Genius

While it is insanely easy to nitpick many of Love’s interviews throughout The Beach Boys , the documentary, at its very core, is a love letter to Brian Wilson’s genius and the unconventional way he created his art. However, the film never goes too in-depth about the creation of albums either, such as the unfinished album Smile , whose development could have been an entire documentary itself.

Make no mistake, this documentary brings up Love and Brian’s complicated relationship, but the filmmakers feel much more inclined to have the movie serve as a celebration rather than a tell-all. That’s not a bad thing. The Beach Boys’ discography is like a soundtrack for the summer season. After all, is it Memorial Day without the smell of barbecue and “Don’t Worry Baby,” playing in the background? This documentary is just like that, for fans like myself, you are not going to learn much new about the band, but the energy the movie exerts is hard to resist.

Outside of interviews with the surviving band members, the documentary also features conversations with artists such as Janelle Monáe and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder . While both of these interviews do a good job of explaining how The Beach Boys’ work influenced their music, the information itself doesn’t add anything to the documentary as a whole. Monáe’s presence is too brief to add an impact to anything and Tedder’s stories just don’t have as much of a connection to the documentary’s themes. Only Lindsey Buckingham and Don Was ’ interviews add genuine insight to the film about the band’s reach across the world and how they were introduced to the music industry.

There was a lot of potential for the first fully authorized documentary on The Beach Boys and while there were some elements here that left me disappointed as a lifelong fan, I still found myself to be constantly entertained throughout. Dealing with Love's hyperbole was inevitably going to be present regardless, especially because you can't fully tell the story of the band without him. The actual missed opportunity was for this new documentary to say something new, at least for those mega-fans. For those who simply enjoy the work of The Beach Boys, this will easily be far more enjoyable and entertaining. For viewers like me, it's a good two hours where you can just sit back and enjoy the music.

While hardcore fans won't learn anything they didn't already know, 'The Beach Boys' documentary is a perfectly entertaining love-letter to the SoCal band.

• There are several heartfelt interviews with Brian Wilson and Al Jardine.
• The soundtrack is, as expected, a collection of some of the music group's best.
• The Beach Boys themselves are allowed to be vulernable and honest in their interviews.
• A little too much Mike Love.
• The documentary barely touches upon The Beach Boys' later years.

The Beach Boys is now available to stream on Disney+.

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