Brahms: The Boy II is an unnecessary and lackluster sequel where nothing happens for an hour

Brahms: The Boy II is an unnecessary sequel to a poorly-received 2016 film, and it manages to be much worse than its predecessor.

The streak of bad horror movies in 2020 continues with Brahms: The Boy II, a film as stupid as its title. Why not just call it The Boy 2? Maybe because no one remembered the first one enough to recognize that title, which should have been a red flag that a sequel wasn’t needed at all.

However, one thing I liked about The Boy is the weird twist that Brahms was living in the walls of the Heelshire estate. Most of us have heard at least one scary story about someone discovering there was a person living in their house. The Boy capitalized on that fear by ditching the overdone “creepy doll” bit in favor of something much more realistic and, therefore, all the more frightening.

Unfortunately,  the sequel is a movie we’ve seen hundreds of times before. The doll is scary and haunted. We don’t get any indication or explanation of anything from the first film being carried over into this one.

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It has been called a standalone sequel, and I’m not sure why the creators made that decision. If  they had at least kept Brahms – the real, living, and breathing Brahms-  as the villain, it might have made for a more interesting story, even if it wasn’t “good.”

Instead, we’re left with an extremely dull film, almost as lifeless as the Brahms doll itself, which isn’t even a particularly interesting doll to look at.

It was nice to see Katie Holmes in a new film, but this one did her no favors. She had little to work with other than being distressed about her son after a random home invasion sent them fleeing from their old home at the beginning.

You will be able to figure out everything that’s coming next by the first scene of the film. Luckily the run time is exceptionally brief, running under 90 minutes in total,  yet it feels longer than that thanks to its tedious first hour where nothing happens.

The final thirty minutes or so are more interesting than the rest of the film by far, but that’s a lot of time to waste for something with very little payoff. It’s no wonder the movie isn’t doing well at the box office.

Did you see Brahms: The Boy II in theaters? What did you think about the film? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Brahms: The Boy II is currently playing in theaters.