Film Review: BRAHMS: THE BOY II (2020)

Director William Brent Bell returns to helm the unnecessary sequel Brahms: The Boy II (2020).  I say unnecessary as if you’ve seen the original film, then you know there is no need or logical place for a sequel to go, so writer   The original film was very much related in the “real” world but this sequel obviously goes into supernatural territory.

Stacey Menear decides to rewrite a lot of what made the original film such a great, yet surprising, film.

Liza (Katie Holmes) and her son Jude (Christopher Convey) are assaulted in their home while her husband Sean (Owain Yeoman) is away.  Suffering from stress from that night, Jude has stopped talking and Liza starts suffering from nightmares so they decide to uproot their family and move out to the country to heal.  Unbeknownst to them, they move into the cottage next to the one that featured in the original film.  When the family goes for a walk in the woods and venture to closely to that house, Jude finds the doll Brahms buried in the ground.  They also meet Joseph (Ralph Ineson), the groundskeeper, who tells them about some of the history involving the house.

Back at home, Liza begins to notice strange behavior in her son Jude.  She discovers Brahms “rules” and Jude starts to dress and act like Brahms.  She starts to question where Brahms came from and her investigation leads to a slew of murders and stories involving Brahm’s original home and its inhabitants to the point where she starts to think that maybe her son is possessed by the doll.  Now she must find a way to save her son before it is too late.

The first two-thirds of the film is actually not that bad.  Menear does a great job creating characters that actually have a captivating story that is rounded out by a great cast to bring it to life.  The film looks great and the atmosphere of dread permeates the film.  It is the fact that the film ultimately takes a supernatural turn in the third act that destroys the good will built up to that point.  The explanation for everything borders on ludicrous especially considering the original film.  The film would have been better served as an original stand-alone film rather than a sequel due to the baggage.  Keeping this in mind it’s anyone’s guess if you will ultimately enjoy the film although it may be better enjoyed by audiences who have never seen the original as which point the film should have just been called “Brahms”.

Film Review: GHOST HOUSE (1988)

Umberto Lenzi (as Humphry Humbert) directs the haunted house thrilled Ghost House (1998) which for Italian audiences was known as La Casa 3 or an unofficial sequel to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films.  For those of you that didn’t know, The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 were re-titled La Casa and La Casa 2, respectfully, when released in Italy so many audiences know this film as a sequel to those films.  This film has nothing to do with those films and if you were expecting something in their style then you’ll be sadly remiss.

Instead, this film deals with a group of people drawn to a mysterious house because of a radio signal.  Once at the house the group begin to see and experience haunting imagery tied to a little girl and her evil doll.  AS each of them fined themselves alone in the house they meet a deadly demise and time is running out for them to discover the true history of the house and why each of them were drawn there.

Unless you’re a Lenzi fan then there is very little to recommend this film.  It’s very tame even for one of his films and unfortunately time has not been kind to it as it has dates pretty badly.  This being said, the film is typical Lenzi and there are some haunting images that Lenzi will immediately recognize.

Companion to “Conversations in Horror” - “My Favorite Evil Doll Films”

“My Favorite Evil Doll Films”

In the podcast “Conversations in Horror” hosts Ron McLellen and I look at different aspects of the horror genre in order to entertain and educate fans.  This article is a companion to the show as a means to touch upon things that the show doesn’t have time to.  Enjoy.

I decided that it was time to take a look at some of my favorite films that feature evil dolls.  Some of these films you may be very familiar with while others you may not be (which means you probably need to go out there and look them up).  If you listen to Episode #1002 then you will know that we touched upon some of these films but I will enlighten you even more. 

The film that got me most interested in evil dolls was Child’s Play (1988).  It had a profound effect on me as a child, so much that the franchise was and still remains one of my all-time favorites about Halloween, Friday the 13^th, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  The idea of using voodoo to become one with a doll and to continue killing people and manipulating a child terrified and fascinated me as a child.  It lead to my searching out other evil dolls especially Charles Band’s Puppetmaster (1989), which had some of the coolest dolls ever committed to film.  Chucky may have been the most terrifying doll there was but Band’s group of misfit and misunderstood dolls were among the most entertaining.  I still love all the films in the franchise and eagerly await a new film whenever they are released.

I think Charles Band and Full Moon Entertainment (and his various other companies) had the greatest effect on me growing up as a child because of the Puppet Master franchise and Demonic Toys (1992) and its various sequels.  Whereas the puppets of the Puppet Master franchise could be seen as good those in Demonic Toys were all bad which made them even more fun.  If there is one thing that Full Moon Entertainment does well, it is doll movies - others include Doll Graveyard (1995) and Dangerous Worry Dolls (2008), among many more.  One of the highlights of the Band produced films is Stuart Gordon’s Dolls (1987).  This is a superb film that’s over shadowed by Gordon’s other major works but no less a classic on its own.  I love this film.

Another one of my all-time favorites from this same time period is Dolly Dearest (1991), a largely ignored and forgotten film that doesn’t really have anything new to say but have always been an entertaining film.  It has not aged as well as some of the others but its slightly darker tone doesn’t come off nearly as campy as the Band produced films.  Another film in this same camp is the psychological thriller Pinocchio’s Revenge (1996), another largely forgotten film yet one that I really loved when it came out.  I’ve always had a fascination with doll films since the original Child’s Play and therefore any film featuring a doll was always high on my list.

Of a more adult vein is the Anthony Hopkins starring Magic (1978).  This is a classic psychological thriller that’s more of a character breakdown through the eyes of a ventriloquist who lets his fractured mind take over.  This is successful due to Hopkins’ powerful performance and descent into madness.  A mind not to be missed or forgotten.

Dolls continue to have a profound effect of children in the Tobe Hooper classic Poltergeist (1982) which is not a doll movie per say but it is most infamously remembered because of the clown doll that seems to have a will of its own.  This is not just a terrifying clown but a horrifying doll as well.  Makes you never want to have another doll around the house ever again.

Even more terrifying is the Zuni doll from Trilogy of Terror (1975) and its sequel of which most audiences remember the vengeful Zuni doll more than anything else in the film.  It overwhelms the narrative and ends the anthology film on a high note.  

More recent is the film Dead Silence (2007) which I thought was an amazing film overlooked by the fact that it is indeed a killer doll movie.  I love the atmosphere and the story and the look of this film.  It is written by Leigh Whannell and James Wan who had already created the creepy Billy doll in the Saw films but went one step further for this film.  They would go even one step further with their film The Conjuring (2013) which introduced the terrifying Annabelle doll (which would be the subject of her own film in 2014).

Dolls can be for good but more often than not they are the harbingers of evil (or that is there main function in horror films).  I’m not particularly afraid or scared of dolls and doll films simply interest and entertain me.  Love them or hate them evil dolls are here to stay.  I’m sure we’ll see more of them in the near future (especially in the Poltergeist remake to be released this year) but until then I suggest you seek out these films when you need something to take the edge off one night.

To watch the episode of “Conversations in Horror” go here –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypOa_wliFEI

Film Review: DEMONIC TOYS 2: PERSONAL DEMONS (2010)

The films that come out of the Full Moon Entertainment vault may not be cinematic masterpieces but they are some of the most fun and entertaining films which is exactly what comes in Demonic Toys 2: Personal Demons (2010).  Coming off of the better than expected original this film has a lot to live up to.  Fortunately, for the majority of Full Moon sequels they don’t have to be as good if not better than the original, they just need to be entertaining. 

In this film two of the demonic toys (Baby Oopsie Daisy and Jack in the Box) find their way in the hands of an antiques collector who takes the dolls into a castle in which a cursed doll resides (and which the collector wants to add to his collection).  This cursed doll comes to life and instills some of its own life essence into the demonic dolls and then all hell breaks loose as the demonic toys try to teach their new friend the art of torture and death by killing everyone they come into contact with.  What’s a little fun between demonically possessed dolls especially in a Full Moon film?

Now the film has nothing new in the way of story as written & directed by William Butler but it is quite full and has plenty of kills to entertain horror fans.  Most of the fun, as in all the Demonic Toys films, comes from the toys themselves especially Baby Oopsie Daisy who is given the best one-liners (as in all the various Demonic Toys films and spin-offs).  Next to the Puppet Master series this franchise is the most entertaining in terms of having the most outrageous story and fun from killer dolls.

People not familiar with the Full Moon films may not find the humor and joy in this film (or any other one in their vault) but it has enough going for it to keep audiences amused…at least for a little while.

Film Review: DOLL GRAVEYARD (2005)

I’m usually a big fan of the Full Moon Entertainment library of films as long as they can entertain me and showing me something new or at least crazy and interesting but none of this can be found in Doll Graveyard (2005). 

In 1911 Sophie has an accident when playing with her dolls that anger her father.  As punishment, her father forces her to take her dolls and bury them in the backyard.  An accident happens and Sophie is killed and her father buries her with the dolls in the backyard of the house.   Years later (modern day) Guy (Jared Kusnitz) discovers one of the dolls and realizes that he’s got more than he bargained for when the spirit of Sophie starts to control the doll and take over Guy’s fragile psyche.  All of the corresponds during a secret house party that his sister DeeDee (Gabrielle Lynn) is having while their father is away giving us plenty of lambs for the slaughter.  People run through the house, people get killed and that’s generally the rest of the film.

Now I enjoy the occasional slaughter-athon especially in a Full Moon film but this is a film written and directed by Charles Band himself so I was expecting a little something more.  Characters are pretty dumb from beginning to end and Guy comes off as an overly confident geek/nerd who gets possessed by a doll or in his words an “action figure.”  One of the true travesties of the film is the lack of all “real” characters as all the characters in this film do stupid things for stupid reasons and come off as caricatures.  Doesn’t make for the most interesting of Band films.

If the dolls were at least interesting I could probably forgive most of the rest of the film’s shortcomings but even the dolls lack personality and finesse and the most interesting of characters is Sophie herself who controls the dolls but doesn’t show up into the final moments of the film.  I will say that the gore is more plentiful in this film that in some of Full Moon’s other films (which means that there is at least one good point for the film) and Band, as usual, knows how to stage and direct the onscreen mayhem when it is called for, so, at least there are very few moments that drag.  Overall, this is one of Band’s lesser films that’s a curiosity but nothing more.