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UNIVERSAL

MOVIE INFO

Director:
William Brent Bell
Cast:
Katie Holmes, Owain Yeoman, Christopher Convery
Writing Credits:
Stacey Menear

Synopsis:
After a family moves into the Heelshire Mansion, their young son soon makes friends with a life-like doll called Brahms.

Box Office:
Budget:
$10 Million.
Opening Weekend
$5,823,006 on 2151 Screens.
Domestic Gross
$12,611,536.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
English DVS
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French

Runtime: 87 min.
Price: $22.98
Release Date: 5/19/2020

Bonus:
• Alternate Ending
• Deleted/Alternate Scenes
• Previews
• DVD Copy


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RELATED REVIEWS


Brahms: The Boy II [Blu-Ray] (2020)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 1, 2020)

With a worldwide gross of $74 million, 2016’s The Boy didn’t exactly become a box office sensation. However, like many horror flicks, it cost so little money that it turned a tidy profit.

Surprisingly, it took four years for a sequel to finally arrive. Perhaps due to that long layoff, 2020’s Brahms: The Boy II flopped, as even its low $10 million budget couldn’t redeem its $20 million worldwide take.

As such, I wouldn’t count on a third film in the series, but who knows? Slash the budget down to $5 million and maybe the franchise can continue.

When a violent home invasion leaves their family scarred, married couple Sean (Owain Yeoman) and Liza (Katie Holmes) take young son Jude (Christopher Convery) and move from London to the remote English countryside. He went mute after the traumatic incident so they hope a new start will benefit him.

They relocate to Heelshire Manor, an estate where weird violence previously occurred. The family remains unaware of the location’s troubled past, however.

After they settle in at Heelshire, Jude discovers a lifelike porcelain doll named Brahms. Jude develops a bond with this object and strange incidents soon begin to occur.

Because the genre comes burdened by so many clichés and trite choices, I expect little from horror flicks, but the 2016 Boy came as a pleasant surprise. It seemed fairly creative and turned into an effective little chiller.

That led to increased expectations from Brahms, though not to a tremendous degree. I tend to feel so skeptical of the genre that I leaned toward the view that the 2016 film offered an aberration and Brahms probably would regress toward the mean.

Call me Nostradamus, as that prediction proved correct. Brahms almost totally extinguishes the goodwill earned by the original movie, as it provides a stale, silly affair.

Part of the first flick’s charm came from the fact it didn’t rely on fantasy elements to earn the audience’s attention. While the viewer likely anticipates an Annabelle situation with supernatural concepts, The Boy wound up with real-world explanations for its horror.

Even though Brahms comes from the same writer and director as The Boy, it unwisely jettisons this form of reality. Without too many spoilers on display, Brahms ignores the rules set up in the prior flick and makes Brahms a figure with magical powers.

To some degree, the movie tries to explain this twist, but these narrative elements feel utterly unconvincing, and they match poorly with what we learned in the 2016 tale. It feels like the filmmakers decided that they couldn’t recreate the same atmosphere so they just abandoned attempts to allow the two to mesh.

Maybe I’d buy these alterations if Brahms managed to turn into something more than a collection of jump scares in search of a story. Whereas The Boy mustered real characters and an actual plot, Brahms just tosses out a bunch of “boo moments” without anything much to connect them.

Oh sure, Brahms attempts some deeper meaning via the PTSD suffered by both Jude and his mother, but those moments act as nothing more than windowdressing. This turns into an empty story that uses psychological damage as a shallow attempt at meaning.

Honestly, I find it tough to accept that the same writer and director made The Boy and Brahms, for the two seem so disconnected. Brahms turns into a real disappointment after the engaging Boy.


The Disc Grades: Picture B/ Audio B/ Bonus D+

Brahms: The Boy II appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a mostly positive presentation.

Overall delineation looked fine, as the movie usually seemed well-defined. Some wider shots could be a little soft, but not to a substantial degree. I saw no jaggies or shimmering, and both edge haloes and print flaws remained absent.

To the surprise of no one, teal and amber dominated the film’s palette. While predictable, the colors seemed well-executed.

Blacks showed good depth, and shadows were fine. Some low-light shots could be a smidgen thick, but not terribly so. All this led to a more than competent presentation.

Similar thoughts accompanied the fairly good DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Brahms. This wasn’t exactly an action-packed mix, so one shouldn’t expect constant auditory shenanigans. When appropriate, the soundscape kicked to life well, but much of it focused on ambient information and music.

Audio quality worked fine. Speech seemed natural and concise, without edginess or other issues.

Music offered good range and impact, and effects followed suit. These elements contributed fine dimensionality, with strong low-end at appropriate times. All of this led to a worthwhile soundtrack, if not a memorable one.

In addition to an Alternate Ending (8:29), we find six Deleted and Alternate Scenes (9:54). In many ways, the “Alternate Ending” echoes the one in the final cut, but the latter makes Brahms’ nature more literal.

“Alternate”” also concludes the movie on a less concrete note. It doesn’t offer a huge change, but “Alternate” feels more satisfying.

As for the rest of the cut footage, most of it seems superfluous, as little of the information adds anything useful. We do get a look at the Brahms doll’s origins, however, a scene that teases in an intriguing manner, even if nothing much comes of it.

The disc opens with ads for The Turning, My Spy, The Gentlemen, The Lodge and The Hunt.

A second disc brings a DVD copy of Brahms. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

After the pleasant surprise of the first film, I hoped Brahms: The Boy II would offer another entertaining horror affair. Unfortunately, it fails to find an involving identity and it turns into little more than a collection of cheap scares. The Blu-ray comes with pretty good picture and audio as well as a few bonus materials. Brahms turns into a definite letdown.

Viewer Film Ratings: 1 Stars Number of Votes: 1
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