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Surgeons of Horror

~ Dissecting horror films

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Tag Archives: killer doll

Movie review: Brahms: The Boy II

24 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by surgeons of horror in Movie review

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

brahms, katie holmes, killer doll, ralph ineson, the boy, william brent bell

When I first about the release of Brahms: The Boy II there was two thoughts that crossed my mind.

1. Was it really necessary to make a sequel? Sure the first film was okay and had a fairly decent plot line that didn’t irritate too much, with a twist that was well played out. Plus Lauren Cohan will always focus my attention. But, did it warrant a franchise to be generated? Evidently, the production team felt the desire to resurrect the porcelain doll and his antics for the big screen again. At least the same director, William Brent Bell would be attached, so the vision and style should be consistent.

2. It starred Katie Holmes, which struck me that I hadn’t seen her since the whole Tom Cruise situation and the last horror film that I can recall her starring in was Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which didn’t exactly ignite any passion in my heart.

The end result though is a curious one as it felt as though it completely forego the previous movies’ conclusion and went back to the heart of a possessed doll.

This in itself would be forgiven if the filmmakers really decided to ramp up the scares, but sadly this is lacking. I think they were attempting to build up on tension with a minimalistic approach, which didn’t come across at all. I know that the Brits (the supposed setting of the film is the UK) are incredibly reserved in many ways, but that’s taking the realism of the feature to the extreme.

The sequel does try to keep a theme throughout its franchise by having its central characters as victims of physical abuse. This time around mother, Lisa (Katie Holmes) and her son, Jude (Christopher Convery) of a house break-in that leaves them both mentally scarred. The latter is unable to talk since the ordeal.

So after numerous bouts of counseling, the father, Sean (Owain Yeoman) who is also feeling guilty from being away at work at the time of the attack, decides that the family needs to have a break and get away from it all. This brings them to the Heelshire’s property from the first film where Jude discovers a partially buried Brahms and instantly forms a close bond with it.

From here on in the feature attempts to instill some animosity with strange events occurring around the house, which Lisa believes is just her son playing up, but when things start to take a sinister turn, she begins to question her own sanity. Is Brahms real? Again this could have been played with more intelligence and evoked a reaction from both the character in delving into the psyche of Lisa and played upon the impact that physical abuse can have on people, especially if it ramped up the isolation component, a hard thing to do with 3 main characters, but not impossible. Instead it just coasts along content with ticking the boxes.

The only other character of note is Joseph the ominous groundskeeper who in fairness is expertly played by Ralph Ineson (The Witch). In fact all the cast deliver worthy performances, but the script and plotline is all too obvious. The only question I had for a brief second was whether there was an ulterior motive from the father Sean. Was he somehow involved in the ruse, but this was quickly swiped aside when it was evident that the movie was going in a very different direction.

The Prognosis:

There was ample opportunity to create a franchise from a fairly average film, but both director and the creative team seem content to rest on their laurels

The scares are absent. The thrill factor is non-existent. And my interest waned before the half hour mark, as I had no care or interest in what happened to the characters.

Another disappointment for the start of 2020.

– Saul Muerte

Movie review: Child’s Play (2019)

05 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by surgeons of horror in Movie review

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Tags

aubrey plaza, child's play, chucky, chucky franchise, killer doll

The dust may have settled since the Child’s Play remake was released but the elephant is still clearly standing in the room. This is definitely not a Child’s Play movie.

The vague premise is still there, but there’s no Damballa VooDoo chant, and no rebirth of notorious serial killer, Charles Lee Ray hell bent on stealing a child’s soul and be reborn again. 

What’s more, there’s no Brad Dourif providing his nuanced vocal contributions that have become so synonymous with the Chucky character since he was first introduced to movie going audiences back in 1988.

As a horror fan who lived and breathed the golden slasher era of the 80s, it admittedly was hard to come into this modern interpretation without applying my own prejudices and even with the inclusion of the new hope, Mark Hamill to provide the voice, it somehow didn’t feel right to me and whilst I’m fairly open to creating new avenues in a well-established franchise, I struggled to connect with the producers and director’s interpretation this time around. It was as if the personality had been completely stripped out of it and ironically enough the soul of the movie was no longer present. The Damballa failed to inject a new Chucky into the horror mainstream.

With that aside, what are we actually left with? A bitter employee who deliberately sabotages a Chucky doll, in order to bring down the toy company who treated him so poorly, and does so by disabling the Asimov Law that robots can not harm humans. Cue anarchy and bloody mayhem as our new Chucky learns how to be human, including its darkest traits. With no filter, Chucky goes on a rampage in order to be Andy’s best friend. 

Speaking of Andy, actor Gabriel Bateman (Annabelle, Lights Out) more than holds his own as the lead protagonist and we do emote with his plight. It’s just a shame that tonally the movie doesn’t go dark enough for us to feel that he is ever in immediate danger. Nor does it inject any decent humour as the franchise has become known for despite the odd moments from Chucky and Detective Mike on occasion. I also would have loved for the creatives to allow Aubrey Plaza who plays Andy’s mum to instal her usual dry, deadpan wit into the proceedings to spice things up a bit.

The death scenes themselves were a little subpar too, whilst Shane’s skinned face moment was kinda cool, you can’t go past this glorious lawn mower death scene in the horror genre in my opinion.

And the whole Mike’s mum trapped in the car thing was just dumb.

By the time all this unfolds we get the climax at the shopping mall, when the Chucky dolls come out in a frenzy (and the bear dolls were kinda fun, but ultimately lacklustre), to orchestrate a face/off (No pun intended, sorry Shane) between Chucky and Andy in order to save his Mum… blah blah blah.

The Diagnosis:

No creator Don Mancini and it shows.

No Brad Dourif and it shows.

No dark and twisted humour to keep the horror fans satiated.

Just a soulless attempt bring the franchise to a modern audience with a vague attempt at commenting on the social media / connected world that we currently reside in and the dangers that lurk within.

But with no personality, we’re left wanting.

Roll on the Chucky tv series.

  • Saul Muerte

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