95. Brahms - The Boy II; movie review

BRAHMS - THE BOY II
Cert 15
86 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong supernatural threat, violence, disturbing images

The first contender for 2020 turkey of the year arrives!
Yep, Brahms: The Boy II is a shocker - combining the age-old scary doll with yet another haunted house, it is the lamest horror I have seen for quite a while.
And yet I have seen social media comments which praise this pile of bilge. With what on earth were people comparing it?
To be blunt, William Brent Bell's film is boring. I must have looked at my watch ten times and it is only 86 minutes long.
I really couldn't wait for it to end.
Brahms: The Boy II stars Katie Holmes as a mum who is psychologically scarred after being attacked by burglars.
Her son (Christopher Convery) is so deeply affected by witnessing the attack that he is rendered mute.
To help them recover, his dad (Owain Yeoman) decides to move them to a remote spot so they can chill out.
Yes, I am hearing you as you cry that an estate with a long history of murder and mayhem is just the place you need for calm respite.
Anyway, clearly no homework was done because the family move in and the lad finds a doll buried in the garden.
His mum even cleans him up, enabling her son to love him even more.
Then the creep-fest begins and somehow the doll, named Brahms, takes over the boy's psyche.
Unbelievably, for quite a while, the parents allow his increasingly erratic behaviour to pass when anyone else would merely chuck the doll in the nearest river or drive straight back to the city.
Indeed, it is their stupidity which is one of the most irritating elements of a film riddled with so many cliches that I wondered if it was a spoof or not.
Apparently, it isn't. Which is funny in itself.
But I didn't laugh - instead, I let out a groan as the possibility of a follow-up was dangled during the final scene.
I really hope that is not the case.

Reasons to watch: If you have never seen a horror film before and need a tepid debut
Reasons to avoid: Cliched and certainly not scary

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 2/10

Did you know? The first doll who made an impact in a horror film was Hugo the dummy which featured in the 1945 horror anthology Dead of Night. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese lists this him as one of the scariest things he’s ever seen on film.

The final word. Christopher Convery: "As soon as I got the role I watched the first movie and the thing that stood out to me the most was the film's tone. I tried to incorporate that atmosphere into how I delivered my lines and my character as a whole." Screen Rant

Share this post