#stacey menear

[spookytuesdaypod]

spooky tuesday is a (now not so new!) podcast where we’re breaking down all of our favorite slashers, thrillers, monster movies and black comedies on the new scariest day of the week.

when we realized we were going to have the chance to record another in-person episode during one of sydney’s la visits, we knew we had to choose our movie with care — but we’re not sure brahms: the boy ii (2020) met us with the same love. though its predecessor was one of our most hotly-debated episodes way back in season 1, we knew the sequel would be best enjoyed together, and it seemed like a perfect fit for mommy issues may. unfortunately, it turns out we might be the ones with the issues. on our latest episode of spooky tuesday, we’re heading back to the heelshire estate to hang out with brahms, but whether or not this is the same little boy/doll we once knew is very much up for discussion.

give spooky tuesday a listen on apple podcasts, spotify, iheart radio, or stitcher

[brokehorrorfan]

The Boy will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on September 3 via Scream Factory. The 2016 horror film was an international co-production between the US and China.

William Brent Bell (Orphan: First Kill, The Devil Inside) directs from a script by Stacey Menear. Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson, Jett Klyne, and James Russell star.

The Boy is presented in 4K from the original elements with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Special features are listed below.

Disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Audio commentary by film critics Julia Cunningham and Emily Higgins (new)

Disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Audio commentary by film critics Julia Cunningham and Emily Higgins (new)

Interview with William Brent Bell (new)

Interview with writer Stacey Menear (new)

Interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl (new)

Interview with doll designer Todd Masters (new)

Interview with doll handler Tannis Hegan (new)

Theatrical trailer

Greta (Lauren Cohan) is a young American woman who takes a job as a nanny in a remote English village. She soon discovers that the family's 8-year-old is a life-sized doll that they care for just like a real boy, as a way to cope with the death of their son 20 years prior. After she violates a list of strict rules, a series of disturbing and inexplicable events bring Greta's worst nightmare to life, leading her to believe that the doll is actually alive.

Pre-order The Boy.

[maleyanderecafe]

The Boy (Movie)

Created by: William Brent/Stacey Menear

Genre: Thriller

Wow, a movie recommendation? I figured at some point I'd have to branch out more to movies and whatnot, so I've been watching a lot of movies during this month to make up for it. This is one of my friend's favorite yandere movies (and she says the second one doesn't exist) because she loves wall men. I'm not the biggest fan of horror movies, but this one really isn't that scary, even for me. Anyways bear with me on this recommendation since it's the first time I'm writing one for a movie

The story starts out with Greta, applying to be a nurse for a rich family named the Hershires. She befriends the delivery boy Malcolm while there, noting how creepy and weird the mansion is. The Hershires then introduce her to their son, Brahmn, who is a doll, and teaches her the route that she has to follow as his nurse. The mother tells Greta that Brahmn is very specific with his nurses, either killing or hurting the ones before that he didn't approve of. We learn from the father Hershire that Brahmns actually died in a fire when he was about 8, and they use the doll as a way to connect with their deceased son. Brahmn does accept Greta, leading the two Hereshires to go on their trip. Greta initially doesn't take the job very seriously only wanting to stay there for two weeks, though we do get her backstory on why she is here in the first place, which is to escape from her ex, Cole. As she's about to dress and basically go on a date with Micheal, she gets stuck in the attic for an entire night. We learn from Malcolm that there's some strange things going on in the family, and that the death of Brahmns might have been a coverup for a murder of a little girl when he was younger. As she's taking care of them, Greta gets spooked by the doll who gives her back the shoes he stole and a sandwich, which makes her take care of the doll very well. We also learn from Greta through a conversation with her and Malcolm that she was at one point pregnant with Cole's child and had a miscarriage because of him. Cole eventually is able to find and break into the mansion, trying to convince Greta to go back with him. While Micheal is there to protect her, Cole ends up smashing the Doll, leading to Greta calling out for Brahmns to protect her. Brahmn pretty much breaks through the mirror showing that he is not a doll but rather a very tall and muscular guy that has been living in the walls. After seeing his doll broken, he proceeds to kill Cole and starts to run after Greta and Malcolm as he wants to protect Greta from Malcolm. They end up running inside of the walls of the house only to find the room that Brahmns has been living in. He sees that he's made a replica of her out of clothes and whatnot as well as a letter from the parents stating that they entrusted her to him, stating that she is now hers, as we did see earlier when they drowned themselves. After beating up Malcolm, he chases after Greta again. Greta picks up a knife and basically forces him to do their bed routine of going to bed and tucking him in before stabbing Brahmn. Brahmn, of course, gets angry and tries to strangle Greta, but Greta ends up stabbing him. We see that Brahmn has burn marks on his face before Greta gets Malcolm to safety and drives the heck out of there.

Starting out, like I said, this movie really isn't that scary or even really that...thriller like, but it's still a good movie. There are maybe three jumpscares, though only one of them caught me off guard (probably because my friend was streaming and it was lagging a bit). While I think there are some parts where Greta probably should have done something a bit smarter (like, you're being paid to take care of the doll...could you actually at least try to take care of it for like a day first, and also why didn't you call the police when Cole literally broke into someone's house) but overall I'd say she's a pretty good protagonist. She's just trying to escape her abusive relationship and live normally. I also think there's a lot of mental gymnastics on how the parents sort of burnt the house to pretend that Brahmns died in it, only to seal him in the walls and then pretend to be insane by having a doll? That's some rich people nonsense. It's also kind of just funny thinking of how this 6ft 5 man keeps rolling around moving this doll around or going to steal stuff from Greta while she's showering without ever really getting noticed.

Anyways, moving onto Brahmns. Considering that he basically chose Greta (instead of the other nurses and presumably because she looks familiar to the girl he killed/had a crush on), we see that he tries to get her favor, by giving back her boots and a sandwich (?). As well as tries to keep her around and actually makes the doll disappear when she says she'll have to leave and of course protecting her from Cole (and Malcolm). From what I can tell, he seems like a protective yandere with a bit of obsessive/stalker behavior considering that he's literally in the walls and watches her, as well as just steals her stuff and makes a doll of her out of colthes. And he's submissive considering all of the Brahmn you're a good boy that I hear a lot. Especially in the ending where Greta forces him to go to bed and kisses him on the head (before stabbing him) but you know how it is. He pretty much just keeps on trying to protect her from Cole and Malcolm since he also cock blocked them when they were about to have sex by moving the doll and listening to loud music, which I personally think is very funny. I'm not sure what happens in the second movie since that could change on if Brahmns is really a yandere or not but just from this movie, it does seem like it. Even if he did try to kill Greta, but to be fair, I'm sure if you were stabbed, you might try to kill the person who stabbed you. Just saying.

Anyways, it was a pretty fun movie. I kind of like making fun of it on certain parts because some of the things are sort of logic leaps, but overall, I did have a good time with it. Also a pretty submissive yandere overall, which I have to approve of. If you enjoy wall men, this one is a good one to watch.

[sourtartsoul]

I haven’t seen Brahms: The Boy 2 in theaters yet and am debating on even bothering to waste the money to. But I wanted to say that I hope William Brent Bell and Stacey Menear learned their lesson in changing things up! Those ratings have got to hurt.

[feartube2000]

The Boy - La maledizione di Brahms

The Boy – La maledizione di Brahms

Le vicende di una famiglia che si trasferisce nella tenuta Heelshire Mansion, inconsapevole della sua terrificante storia. Lì, il loro giovane figlio farà amicizia con una strana bambola di nome Brahms. Titolo originale Brahms: The Boy II Regia William Brent Bell Sceneggiatura Stacey Menear Cast Katie Holmes, Christopher Convery, Owain Yeoman, Ralph Ineson, Daphne Hoskins, Keoni Rebeiro,…

[jmunneytumbler]

'Brahms: The Boy II' Throws It in Reverse

CREDIT: STX Films

Oh, Brahms-y boy, Brahms-y boy, Brahms-boyyyyy

(I promised myself that no matter how I ultimately felt about this movie, I would start off my review of Brahms to the tune of “Danny Boy,” so I pray that you were able to indulge me for a few seconds.)

To my eye, the biggest twist of Brahms: The Boy II is that it was written and directed by the same writer-director combo as the…

[davidosu87]

[movieminutes]

‘Brahms: The Boy II’ Movie Review: So Bad, It's Insulting

‘Brahms: The Boy II’ Movie Review: So Bad, It's Insulting

DIRECTOR William Brent Bell SCREENWRITER Stacey Menear STARS Katie Holmes Owain Yeoman Christopher Convery

RATING PG-13 RUNTIME 86 minutes RELEASE DATE February 21, 2020 STUDIO STXfilm

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

The following post contains spoilers for ‘The Boy’ (2016)

[brahmsheelshiretales]

Heeey luvs I have a fresh meat only for you

Here's the rest of the script of The Boy

[heelshire-mansion]

Alright, guys. We need to talk.

Warning, this contains spoilers about Brahms: The Boy II.

It’s been nearly a full month of social isolation (for us) and we finally caved; yes, we watched Brahms: The Boy II and… it sure was an experience.

It’s not like we didn’t know what we were getting into. Oh, we made sure to read all those reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as soon as the movie came out, going through the stages of grief by memeing about it (mostly Edith, cause she’s the memelord in this relationship). 

There’s so many things wrong with this movie that I (Lucille) have to make a list or I’m gonna lose track:

1. Paper-thin characters

If you thought Malcolm was annoying, wait till you meet Jude’s dad, Sean (I had to look his name up, I’m not even joking). His entire character is Dad™ . That’s it. There is no depth to him, he’s there to deliver jokes only he finds funny (much like Malcolm), and be the “sceptic” who tries to explain away everything until the very end, when he finally appears out of nowhere (because PLOT) and saves the day.

Lisa is next. And I feel so sad for Katie Holmes cause she’s trying so hard to give her character some depth. The entire home invasion looks stupid, the family moves and settles in the new house in just 10 minutes of movie time, and Lisa… is suffering from some very obvious PTSD. Which she doesn’t go to a therapist for. For some reason. But Jude does. *sigh* She’s reduced to be The Anxious Mother and this is unfair to Holmes.

Ralph, I’m so sorry. Edith read in an interview that he took the role because his kids loved the first movie. If anybody is criminally underused in this movie, it’s him. Joseph, his character, is supposed to be the creepy groundskeeper of Glennview Estate (the new name of Heelshire Manor), who is actually a servant of the creepy doll and he’s been helping it by leading Jude to it. Aaaand that’s it - that’s his entire character.

Jude’s character was basically mute for most of the movie, but I think Convery did an okay job at conveying emotion in certain scenes. I’m not gonna pick on the kid actor in this.

I hope they all got paid well at least.

2. Callbacks. SO MANY CALLBACKS.

In the words of Edith: “They feel so gratuitous but they’re more like a knife in the heart”

We get so many of them: hints about Brahms, old (new) photos of him playing the piano, his actual birthday date, etc. AND HE NEVER APPEARS. Btw, the official articles he appears in never say that he killed Emily either, but Joseph and people in town seem to think he did it. I still say D O U B T on that one, especially after the scene with the doll skewering Jude’s bully. Brahms WAS hearing voices however, soooo I guess he also got possessed in the end?

3. Script bad. Lore bad.

(this is so badly photoshopped…)

Oh, where to begin with this one. EVERYBODY, and I mean every single character in this movie, just keeps infodumping. Ever heard of “show don’t tell”? Sadly, Stacey Menear forgot about that while writing this script (but, in his defense, I have a theory about this and I’m going to cover it in another post). 

If I count all the continuity errors and the times Jude’s bully said “mental” (because LOOK, HE’S BRITISH), I’ll be here all night. Did you, like me, think that Brahms was living in the walls for 20 years? Nope. Joseph says it was 30 years. On that matter, the doll was in the Heelshires’ possession until 2015 which really doesn’t match with the timeline of the first movie as far as I’m aware. Then, there is the fact that we have those photos of child!Brahms with the doll, so Malcolm was wrong when he said that the doll appeared AFTER the Heelshires “lost” their son. AND we’re supposed to think that the doll has the same name as our boy because…? Coincidence??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Was this the way of the filmmakers hinting at the fact that this is an alternate timeline? I sure hope so! This was all on purpose, riiiight William?

4. OH GOD THE DOLL MEAT NOT THE DOLL MEAT

If I didn’t know this was supposed to be a horror movie, I’d think it was a comedy. Seriously, every time “Brahms” moved his eyes, turned his head, or tried to be creepy in general, me and Edith would just giggle. It was SO awkward. Here you have those grown ass adults scared of a doll that hasn’t really done anything serious yet one hour into the movie. 

But then, it gets worse.

This is it, folks. This is what we all needed to see. 

I’ll give props to whoever designed this, however, because it is disgusting. (Also, notice how the right side of the face is a different colour? Just like Brahms. CALLBACK? xD)

The Verdict

Watching this movie felt like reading a very boring textbook. Time slowed down and it just wouldn’t end, even though it was just 1 hour and 26 minutes long, including the credits. By the end of it, we both felt nothing. The experience was just… worse than forgettable in a way, because this movie attempts to change what the first one got right. Gone was the atmosphere, the sympathetic protagonist, the tortured anti-villain(?). There’s no emotional connection to anything in it, not even a plain old cheap jumpscare.

Anyway Willy said that it’s an alternate timeline so we can collectively ignore this mess and make memes out of it.

[scourgescollars]

Two more Brahms sketches :>.

Art (c) Me

Character/Movie (c)  Stacey Menear and William Brent Bell

[adamwatchesmovies]

Brahms: The Boy II (2020)

Nothing about 2016's The Boy except for its obligatory “the evil lives on” ending would’ve ever lead anyone to think a sequel would someday come but here we are. The first one wasn’t good but recently, there’s been a trend of bad horror movies getting good follow-ups. Annabelle: Creation and Ouija: Origin of Evil gave me some hope for Brahms: The Boy II. So, how did it go?

After a violent home invasion, Liza (Katie Holmes) and Sean (Owain Yeoman) decide to take their traumatized son, Jude (Christopher Convery) away from the city. In the woods outside their new home, the boy finds an old doll he names “Brahms”. As Jude begins displaying increasingly disturbing behavior, his mother starts believing there's something unnatural about Brahms.

The story by Stacey Menear (who also wrote the first) gives Liza and Sean a good reason for keeping Brahms around. The burglary has rendered Jude silent. They hear him talking to the doll and figure it’s doing him some good. As for the creepy stuff around the house, Liza attributes them to post-trauma jitters. For a while, you’re unsure if the movie is showing you things that are actually happening or if it’s all in mom’s head. It's enough to make you see past the many scares that conclude with her waking up. You even throw Brahms a bone for appropriately punishing its most insufferable character. This is where it finally comes to life, right?

Waiting and waiting, your patience eventually runs out. The by Stacey Menear is too obvious. Even the loudest guy in my theater, the one who screamed at every scare everyone else saw coming from far away called the third-act twist. Nothing about this movie is new and it’s not scary, particularly when Liza and Sean stand dumbfounded in front of the pieces of a puzzle that anyone in their right mind should be able to solve with a simple conversation.

Despite being directed by William Brent Bell - also responsible for The Boy. There are numerous ret-cons or reveals that don’t match what we saw in the previous movie. It makes the flashbacks to it even more awkward than they would be normally but the film aims to stand alone so that's fine. You figure it's almost over so you don't care anymore until the picture’s conclusion comes out of nowhere and turns everything upside down. It’s so clumsy it’s actually kind of fun in an I-can't-believe-this-is-what-they-decided-to-do kind of way.

Brahms: The Boy II makes the first seem almost good by comparison. It’s pretty dull all the way through - if only because you’ve seen everything this movie has to offer done better before - until the end when it tries to pull off some moves that feel like they belong in a completely different kind of horror movie. I suppose I’ll give it some points for the surprise ending but that's about it. (Theatrical version on the big screen, March 10, 2020)

[brokehorrorfan]

Brahms: The Boy II will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 19 via Universal Pictures. The sequel to 2016's The Boy hit theaters in February from STX Entertainment.

The Boy director William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside) and writer Stacey Menear both return for the followup. Katie Holmes, Ralph Ineson, Owain Yeoman, and Christopher Convery star.

Special features include an alternate ending. Details are below.

Special features:

Alternate ending

Deleted and alternate scenes

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 lifelike doll he calls Brahms. Katie Holmes stars as a mother who increasingly becomes uneasy and terrorized by her son's new supernatural "friend."

[moviesandmania]

Brahms: The Boy II - USA, 2020 - Now with a slew of reviews

Brahms: The Boy II – USA, 2020 – Now with a slew of reviews

Brahms: The Boy II is a 2019 [released 2020] American horror feature film directed by William Brent Bell (The Boy; Wer; The Devil Inside) from a screenplay written by Stacey Menear (The Boy). The STX Films-Lakeshore Entertainment production stars Katie Holmes (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark), Ralph Ineson (The Witch), Owain Yeoman (The Belko Experiment), Christopher Convery and Anjali Jay (iZombie).

[sourtartsoul]

An interview with Stacey Menear (The Boy 2016 writer)

Read the full interview here

[moremoviesclips]

Brahms: The Boy II (2020) TRAILER