2016’s The Boy has gotten a bit of critical re-evaluation
since its release. I am likely never going to understand why people would like
something this hacky and undercooked, but I’m not so far up my own arse as to
try and get between someone and actually liking something. Getting into a
proper grievance about shit like that is one of the pettiest things a person
can engage in, and I certainly don’t want to encourage it.
But with that said, yeah, I’m not a big fan of that film,
nor of the film’s director William Brent Bell. I have made statements to the
tune of him being an absolute hack and one of the most non-essential filmmakers
in the modern horror scene, and even pitted him against fellow schlockmeister
John R. Leonetti for the title of worst horror director working today. And for
that… I honestly want to apologise. Because with Bell’s latest, he isn’t in
competition with Leonetti anymore. He has straight-up won that fight.
Let’s start with the basics: This isn’t scary. Like, to the
point where it doesn’t even delve into music video horror territory and have
orchestral stings team up with the jump scares. It can’t even manage that
much, instead putting way too much stock in the atmosphere to give even the
slightest inkling that we’re supposed to be scared of the titular doll. It’s an
admittedly reasonable approach, since composer Bear McCreary always manages to
shine even in the dullest of messes, but nothing else here is even remotely
trying. Dude knows the doll itself can’t manage on its own, as its placid
porcelain features are definitely among the lesser of the bigger ‘creepy doll’
canon.
It thankfully pulls back a little on the tonal issues that
so plagued the first film, moving more directly into psychological territory
with a mother and son moving off into the country after a rather traumatising
home invasion. Ignoring how this ‘change of scenery’ was basically the same
impetus for the first film’s plot, it at least tries to do some justice
to both their initial fractured state and how the inclusion of the doll might end
up being a useful tool in helping the son recover.
Of course, that very idea not only locks in perfectly with
the clichés of the genre, it also has a rather trashy B-movie way of delving
into the psychiatric matters at hand. I made a comparison between the first
film and Pin in my review for it, and this film goes even further down that
road, with the kid dressing up like the doll and essentially going down the
road of becoming the doll. Once again, I find myself looking back at Pin
with ever-increasing fondness as, for as goofy as that film could get, it still
handled the idea a lot better than anything writer Stacey Menear can conjure
up.
But all of that doesn’t even come close to the film’s
biggest problem, which is its closest resemblance to the original: The lack of
forethought put into the actual story. The original kept itself stuck between
‘the characters are going crazy’ and ‘the doll is actually possessed’, and tried
to accomplish both with its ending and just made a dog’s breakfast of
the whole thing.
And here, the filmmakers bank on you both having seen the
original film and not having seen it for its own twists to make any
sense. While I could be charitable and compare the genre switch-up here to
something like the Friday The 13th series, it’s honestly a lot
closer to the Ghost House Pictures’ Boogeyman movies in how desperately it
wants to have its cake and eat it too in regards to story continuity. It’s a
change that ultimately feels in-tune with the first film, but only because that
film also lacked narrative direction to the point of plain not knowing what to
do with itself, and it makes for a ‘twist’ that can be spotted from a mile
away. Even though it directly contradicts the film that came before it.
Even knowing that there are audiences out there who liked
the first film, I seriously doubt that they’ll be as supportive of this one.
Along with being excruciatingly dull and trope-laden, not to mention anchored
by Katie Holmes in a leading role who doesn’t rise above what’s been expected
of her lately, it makes for such a fundamentally wrong-headed sequel that,
despite having the same director and writer at the helm, it feels like it was
made by people who didn’t even watch the original.
No comments:
Post a Comment