2016's The Boy was a rather uneventful movie that just so happened to have a great plot twist that made it a bit more memorable than your average possessed doll flick. See, the big reveal was that the doll wasn't actually possessed at all, which led to a nice expectation subverting finale. This follow-up completely contradicts all of that however by turning the porcelain little creep into a full-blown demonic entity with a will of its own. It feels like some cardinal rule of sequels has been broken as this betrays the one noteworthy aspect of its predecessor. Oh, it also makes NO FREAKING SENSE. There is really only one way they could have made this turn for the legitimately supernatural work. That was by having the ghost of Brahms inhabit the body of his doll after he died in the first movie. Yes, that would have been ridiculous and silly, but also acceptable given what was established in the previous film. Especially compared to what they actually went with instead. Writer Stacey Menear tries to convince us that the doll was always alive, seemingly unaware of all the resulting plot holes despite having penned the script for the original as well. For example, when the doll was smashed four years ago (my, how time flies) it shattered away into the shards of glass and hollow interior that were all it ever really was. When the shell is cracked here though there's some kind of gross meat puppet monster lurking underneath. Why wasn't that the case last time? I doubt anyone involved could cook up a reasonable answer to that question or any of the others you'd have after watching this. Brahms: The Boy II has a lot more working against it than just its logic and continuity errors however. As a horror it's bland, predictable, and flat. Offering little more than a few jump scares that don't amount to anything and a remarkable lack of atmosphere. Visually it also looks generic and stale like some straight-to-DVD effort, only shot through a higher quality camera lens. Then there's the story which once again features a protagonist that has been through some trauma, but uses her and her son's past victimization as a MacGuffin to trap them in their situation rather than adding anything meaningful to the conversation on topics like PTSD. There's part of me that believes deep down that this was never meant to be a sequel. That Menear reunited with director William Brent Bell to make entirely different haunted doll movie, but because their last one made some money decided to make it a half-hearted and poorly thought-out continuation. Perhaps at the behest of the studio or something. When viewed as it's own thing it's entirely watchable if not particularly impressive whatsoever. However, it's impossible to recognize it as a standalone work because it's literally subtitled The Boy II. Which means the ties it shares by association will always be present in the minds of the audience. So the way this breaks the fiction while backpedaling on the one reason The Boy garnered any sort of following at all was never going to go unnoticed and doomed this low effort, incoherent cash grab from the start.