Sight&Sound - 05.2020

REVIEWS

66 | Sight&Sound | May 2020

Reviewed by Kim Newman

Over the last decade, director William

Brent Bell followed a groove of minor

but likeably unsettling horror: The Devil

Inside (2012), an overheated possession

movie, and werewolf variant We r (2016)

• Bell’s best to date – made few ripples,
  but The Boy (2016) attracted enough
  attention to warrant this sequel.
  The formula remains: Canadian location
  passing for English country estate, American
  female lead among British support, some
  ‘boo’ moments with the titular porcelain-
  faced doll, and very little originality. Bell
  and returning screenwriter Stacey Menear
  unpick the final revelations of the first film,
  in which the doll, Brahms, was the avatar
  of a mad killer hiding in secret rooms. Now
  the doll is a genuine evil entity, responsible
  for all manner of previous, prequel-friendly
  tragedies (cf. the Conjuring franchise).
  For a while, the suspense strings
  out as solemn child Jude (Christopher
  Convery) channels the insistent, prissy,
  incipiently murderous Brahms – though
  his tricks are overfamiliar. As if hesitant
  about how scary it wants to be, the film
  holds back on racking up a body count,
  though several supporting characters are
  irritating enough for inclusion on any
  murder moppet’s kill-list. It does its job, but
  unambitiously. Yet again, a finish seems to
  offer closure by definitively vanquishing
  its main menace... only for narrative
  developments to be instantly rolled back
  in case there’s appetite for an encore.

Brahms: The Boy II

Director: William Brent Bell

Certificate 15 86m 26s

London, present day. Traumatised by a violent home

invasion, Liza suffers flashbacks and her young son

Jude stops talking. Husband Sean arranges for the

family to move to the remote Heelshire estate to

recuperate. Jude digs up Brahms, an antique doll

which has been the focus of various tragedies, and

insists his parents follow the doll’s rules. Liza and

Sean reluctantly put up with Brahms because Jude

starts talking again. The possessed doll urges Jude

to murder his parents, but Jude fights back. The

living doll is thrown into a furnace, and the family

returns to the city – but Brahms’s influence lingers.

Produced by

Matt Berenson

Gary Lucchesi

Tom Rosenberg

Jim Wedaa

Eric Reid

Richard S. Wright

Written by

Stacey Menear

Director of

Photography

Karl Walter

Lindenlaub

Editor

Brian Berdan

Production

Designer

John Willett

Music

Brett Detar

Production

Sound Mixer

Millar Montgomery

Costume Designer

Aieisha Li

Production

Companies

Lakeshore

Entertainment,

STXfilms

Executive

Producers

Michael McKay

Jackie Shenoo

Robert Simonds

Cast

Katie Holmes

Liza

Ralph Ineson

Joseph

Owain Yeoman

Sean

Christopher

Convery

Jude

Anjali Jay

Dr Lawrence

Fabio William

Brahms

In Colour

Distributor

Entertainment Film

Distributors Ltd

Credits and Synopsis

Reviewed by Trevor Johnston

As drug-related activity has fanned out from

major metropolitan centres to provincial areas,

the term ‘county lines’ has recently been much

used in the UK media. It was perhaps inevitable

that British film or television would use it as

an attention-grabbing title; more surprising

is the provenance of this striking feature’s

writer-director Henry Blake, who has 11 years’

experience counselling vulnerable young people

exploited by the drugs trade. As this bracing

drama unfolds, we’re drawn in and held by a

sense that this first-time film-maker absolutely

knows whereof he speaks, and wants to speak up

for those caught in an unfolding social tragedy.

What is exceptional about the piece is Blake’s

avoidance of well-worn cinematic paths – either

the plot-heavy austere social realism of the Paul

Laverty/Ken Loach school or the market-friendly

urban-styled youth flick à la Noel Clarke. Instead,

he has created a distinctive stylistic context,

through cameraman Sverre Sørdal’s unsettling,

heightened colour palette and the dread-filled

droning of James Pickering’s score, to illuminate

County Lines

United Kingdom/Belgium 2019

Director: Henry Blake

Certificate 15 90m 18s

London, present day. Fourteen-year-old Tyler, who

lives with his hard-up single mum Toni and little

sister Aliyah, has been sent to a pupil referral unit

by his comprehensive school. Six months earlier,

concerned staff had called in his mother to encourage

better communication with her quietly spoken son.

Meanwhile, Tyler has been befriended by self-styled

‘entrepreneur’ Simon, who plies him with new trainers

and promises of gainful employment. Persuaded,

Tyler’s first task is to carry drugs to a south coast town,

and he’s soon drawing a serious cut of the proceeds

as he becomes a busy delivery boy. He presents his

mum with a wad of cash when she asks where he

has been, but as tension mounts he punches her to

emphasise his newfound alpha-male status. When

he is subsequently robbed and assaulted by rival

drug-dealers, however, she helps him recover, selling

off his ill-gotten possessions to pay a threatening

Simon for his losses. Back in the present, the PRU

counsellor explains that drug-dealers regard kids like

Tyler as acceptable losses; Tyler’s renewed closeness

with his mother promises an improved home life.

Produced by

Victoria Bavister

David Broder

Written by

Henry Blake

Cinematographer

Sverre Sørdal

Editor

Paco Sweetman

Production Designer

Phoebe Darling

Composer

James Pickering

Production

Sound Mixer

Juan Montoto Ugarte

Costume Designer

Sharon Long

©Broder Blake Ltd

Production

Companies

A Two Birds & Loupe

Films production in

association with Dam

Films, Pia Pressure,

Belga Productions

Executive Producers

Christopher

Granier-Deferre

Simona Hughes

Zoe Bamber

Pia Getty

Cast

Conrad Khan

Tyler

Ashley Madekwe

Toni

Marcus Rutherford

Sadiq

Tabitha Milne-Price

Aliyah

Harris Dickinson

Simon

Anthony Adjekum

Laurence

Chizzy Akudolu

Sophie

Ebenezer Hyau

Deontay

Johanna Stanton

Izzy Merlo

Carlyss Peer

Bex

Stephen Leask

Mr Matthews

In Colour

[1.55:1]

Distributor

BFI Distribution

Exploitation film: Tabitha Milne-Price, Conrad Khan, Ashley Madekwe

Credits and Synopsis