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Release Year - 2020 Runtime - 1 H, 26 Min Country - USA Christopher Convery directed by - William Brent Bell genre - Mystery.

While by no means a massive critical or commercial success, The Boy was still one of the strangest and most enigmatic mainstream horror films of 2016. The film's insane third act twist certainly divided audiences, and the old-school, throwback horror that it delivered arguably felt tame by some modern standards, but those who loved it seriously loved it. And they continue to. In 2016, the film's director, William Brent Bell, suggested that a sequel was "certainly possible" if it seemed as though "the audience wants to see another movie. " Having hauled in a global box office of $64 million on a budget of $10 million, it certainly seemed like moviegoers wanted more Brahms, more Heelshire Home, and more of that crazy porcelain doll. Fortunately, fans can expert some deliciously dark doll vibes with the sequel, Brahms: The Boy II. However, if you missed out on the first movie, need a refresher on the original film, or want a primer for part two, then we've got you covered. This is everything you need to know about Brahms: The Boy II before it finally smashes out of the walls. Fair warning: There are massive spoilers for The Boy ahead! The Boy ended on a crazy cliffhanger Before we discuss the sequel, let's recap the original film.?In The Boy, an American nanny named Greta ( Lauren Cohan of The Walking Dead) is hired by an eccentric rich family, the Heelshires, for a very unconventional job. They want her to care for a porcelain doll named Brahms. It's a career move that any sane person would naturally run a mile from, but okay. On top of handing Greta a very specific set of rules by which to care for the doll (including talking to "him" in a loud voice and freezing his food if he doesn't eat it), it also turns out that the real Brahms was the son of the Heelshires, and he was killed in a house fire 20 years ago on his eighth birthday after one of his young friends was found in the forest with her skull crushed. Suspicious, right? Naturally, Greta ignores the rules and only starts to take them seriously when the doll begins to take on a life of its own. Brahms seemingly moves on his own, and a child's voice and sobs can be heard across the mansion. Skip to the end, and Greta discovers that,?lo and behold, the real Brahms has been alive and well, and he's now a grown man who's been living in the walls of the house. A tussle ensues, and Greta eventually stabs him with a screwdriver and flees the estate. But as we discover later, Brahms has survived. And he's busy repairing his shattered doll. Enter Brahms: The Boy II. New characters, same old creepy doll Greta might've escaped, but it seems that the Heelshire house might still be housing Brahms, and that he and his doll are still very much out to torment whoever occupies the mansion next. As we know from the first film, Brahms is still alive, and both he and his doll won't let tiny things like flesh wounds or broken porcelain stop them. In Brahms: The Boy II, a young family will be moving into the Heelshire Mansion with no knowledge of the dark history of the place (though, fyi, people should probably do a Google deep dive on creepy old mansions before they enthusiastically move themselves into them). As the plot synopsis outlines, the young son of the family will find and befriend the spooky porcelain doll.?Considering that the first film showed the Heelshires harboring plans to turn Greta into a mate for the real Brahms (complete with making a porcelain doll based on her image), this spells some pretty terrible things for this particular young boy who will be unaware of the malevolent force he may be inviting into his life. The original director and screenwriter are returning Horror filmmaker William Brent Bell and screenwriter Stacey Menear are back for the sequel, which is great news for fans of the first film who would likely want for this sequel to retain all the same vibes they loved about The Boy. Though both remained tight-lipped about Brahms: The Boy II during production, it's definitely interesting that Bell and Menear have spoken about how they ended the first film to purposefully set up the groundwork for a sequel. While Bell hinted to Daily Dead that "the sequel will be a complex little story to deliver on what the first movie delivered" back in 2016, Menear told Cosmopolitan that he was already toying with an idea. The screenwriter revealed that because the first film "was based on a twist, " now "there's a lot of other interesting stuff" that he feels more open to "focus on" since the audience already knows the twist going into the sequel. All in all, it gives the impression that both of them are more confident and eager to build upon the creepy world they introduced in the first movie. And it sounds like they have a lot of intriguing ideas about what Brahms will be up to next. Katie Holmes is leading the film Mike Coppola/Getty Images Former Dawson's Creek cast member Katie Holmes is playing Liza, a mother who moves into the mansion with her husband and young son. As a real-life mother to a young daughter, Holmes didn't have to dig too deeply into the role of a terrified mom who watches her son be drawn in by sinister forces.?In June 2019, Holmes told Entertainment Weekly, "I felt like this was a story about a mother and her child and this evil presence that's influencing her child, and how that's a universal fear for every parent. " But there's also another universal fear that Holmes apparently discovered during the making of the film: dolls. They'll get you every time. In an interview with Access Hollywood, Holmes stated that working on the movie was "very creepy" and especially so when she was "working one-on-one with the doll. " Stating that she "loved dolls growing up, " the actor revealed that the experience of having to act opposite such a malevolent little monster as doll-Brahms made her feel like the experience was "really ruining dolls" for her. Fingers crossed that Brahms: The Boy II also wonderfully ruins dolls for the rest of us, too. That doll is up to no good First-look pictures from Brahms: The Boy II revealed some fairly sinister happenings taking place in the Heelshire house against the poor new family who've moved in there. In February 2019, a picture was released showing the porcelain doll buried in dirt, with what looks like the young son of the family covering the doll's mouth with his hand. It's interesting to note from the sleeves of the young boy's suit that he appears to be wearing a very similar outfit to that of the eerie doll. The caption released with the image unnervingly states, " He's made a friend. " Meanwhile, two images released a few months later focused on Holmes' character, Liza, the very concerned matriarch of the new family occupying Brahms' dark playground. In one photo, Liza is staring suspiciously at the porcelain doll while holding a TV remote in her hand. Is Brahms attempting to control the family TV from behind the walls? In another, Liza is holding a flashlight in the face of the porcelain doll while looking concerned about something beyond the frame. If he's up to his old tricks, then you can bet that Brahms is still projecting the same troubling noises throughout the house, which is plenty of cause for concern for any family in a new home Brahms' new friend John Lamparski/Getty Images Rising star Christopher Convery (who you might remember as depicting a young Billy from Stranger Things in those season three flashbacks)?is playing Jude, the son of the family who becomes Brahms' new buddy. In an exclusive image shared by USA Today, Jude can be seen sitting on the couch next to the doll, both of them dressed in identical grey suits. It's difficult to imagine Jude's parents joyfully getting a local tailor to fashion a tiny suit for the kid so that he can match his new favorite doll, so instead, it could be possible that Brahms has left an old childhood suit out for Jude to wear. Considering the history of Brahms?? who had his childhood taken away from him when his parents forced him to live in the walls of the Heelshire Mansion?? it's easy to theorize that Jude could be getting used as a vehicle for Brahms to reclaim the childhood he lost. Or if the Heelshires are somehow still lurking about, it possible that they simply want the young boy to replace the son they hid behind the walls over 20 years ago. Either way, Brahms definitely has a new BFF, so good for him. Brahms: The Boy II has a stellar supporting cast Jason Merritt/Getty Images Rounding out the primary cast are Ralph Ineson?as Joseph and Owain Yeoman?as Liza's husband, Sean. While Yeoman is known best for his roles in films like The Belko Experiment and shows like Emergence and The Mentalist, Ineson will be hugely familiar to genre fans for playing grizzled, hard-worn characters in things like Game of Thrones and Ready Player One. Plus, there's?his memorable performance in Robert Eggers' practically flawless movie The Witch. Brahms: The Boy II is an intriguing next step for both of the UK actors who've seen their careers continue to rise and develop over the past few years. While Welsh-native Yeoman appears to be making more of the transition from TV work to cinema, the Yorkshire-born Ineson has been taking massive strides into the mainstream of late, becoming a versatile and beloved genre staple of the small and big screen and in projects of both colossal and tiny budgets. Brahms: The Boy II has an all-new composer Bear McCreary provided a startling, eerie classical piano score for the original movie, giving The Boy a distinctly vintage, haunting feel. For the sequel, however, a new composer is stepping up for the job in the form of Brett Detar (formerly of rock band the Juliana Theory). The musician has previously collaborated with William Brent Bell by composing the nerve-grating score for the director's 2012 possession flick, The Devil Inside. While he's certainly proved himself to be up to the task of serving up some atmospheric music to
YouTube. The creepy doll tortures a new family (and new star Katie Holmes), but this time without a sense of humor or even much sense at all. 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. “Brahms: The Boy II” 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. Grade: C “Brahms: The Boy II” is now in theaters. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
Critics Consensus More likely to induce boredom than quicken the pulse, Brahms: The Boy II is chiefly scary for the way it undermines the effectiveness of its above-average predecessor. 10% TOMATOMETER Total Count: 48 42% Audience Score Verified Ratings: 1, 114 Brahms: The Boy II Ratings & Reviews Explanation Tickets & Showtimes The movie doesn't seem to be playing near you. Go back Enter your location to see showtimes near you. Brahms: The Boy II Videos Photos Movie Info Unaware of the terrifying history of Heelshire Mansion, a young family moves into a guest house on the estate where their young son soon makes an unsettling new friend, an eerily life-like doll he calls Brahms. Rating: PG-13 (for violence, terror, brief strong language and thematic elements) Genre: Directed By: Written By: In Theaters: Feb 21, 2020 wide Runtime: 86 minutes Studio: STXfilms Cast News & Interviews for Brahms: The Boy II Critic Reviews for Brahms: The Boy II Audience Reviews for Brahms: The Boy II Brahms: The Boy II Quotes Movie & TV guides.