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Arrow in the Head reviews The Wrath of Becky, the sequel to the 2020 home invasion thriller Becky, starring Lulu Wilson

PLOT: Becky decimated a quartet of neo-Nazis when she was just 13 years old. Now a couple years have passed, and she finds herself up against a new group of enemies.

REVIEW: The pandemic shut the world down in March of 2020. But a few months later, directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion (working from a script by Nick Morris, Lane Skye, and Ruckus Skye) gifted a nation of shut-ins with a special treat: the thriller Becky, which has been described as an “ultra violent Home Alone“. Becky, which was first shown in drive-ins and then on VOD before being released in America, earned $1 million domestically during this troubled period. It made enough money to justify a sequel, and we now have The Wrath of Becky. A sequel that comes from an entirely new creative team, who decided to make a tonal shift that might not sit well with some fans of the original.

One of the charms of the first Becky was that it was played straight. Kevin James’ performance was not funny, even though he was the main villain. Becky was a serious home invasion thriller, complete with some solid character moments, which happened to be about an angry teen girl defending herself against the criminals that were messing with her and her dad. And make a bloody mess out of them. The sequel has a more goofy and comedic tone. Kevin James could have given his usual comedy performance if he hadn’t lost his head at the end of the previous movie. The Wrath of Becky

is directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. They also wrote the screenplay that Angel penned. The script was written in three weeks, and it shows. The film has some strange, sloppy elements. The narration by Becky is the most annoying. She’s now a lodger at the home of an older woman named Elena, played by Denise Burse. She also works as a waitress. Lulu Wilson reprises her role as Becky. She does a great job with the material that was given to her, but she and her directors decided to “soften” the edges of her character… They think they achieved this by making her a person who has homicidal fantasy and wishes she could solve every conflict through violence. Becky is a walking dynamite. And the fuse is lit when she crosses paths with members of an insurrection-plotting extremist group called The Noblemen.Angel and Coote really seem to have enjoyed writing for the Noblemen characters, and Angel even went a step further and cast himself as one of these guys. We spend so much time with the chuckleheads and their nonsense that it almost takes away from Becky’s role in her own film. Michael Sirow, Aaron Dalla Villa and Courtney Gains from

Children Of The Corn

play the other Noblemen. Seann William Scott, best known for his comedy role in the American Pie movies, plays the other Noblemen. Scott does an excellent job of playing against the type, just as Kevin James did in his first film. His character is not funny. And yet, the movie around him is often so goofy, he could just as well have played his character as a radicalized Stifler.Becky decides to wipe out this branch of the Noblemen when they kill Elena and steal her beloved dog Diego – who looks to be played by a different canine actor this time around. The movie is a disappointment from the start and it continues to be so when the killing begins. The killings in the first movie were brutal, and most of them were done with improvised tools like rulers, pencils nailed boards a boat motor lawnmower. This time Becky uses more traditional weapons and the majority of the kills either aren’t impressive or are way over the top. At times the movie verges close to becoming a live-action cartoon… and in the end, it sets up a sequel that could very well go all the way into Looney Tunes

territory.Fans of Becky

may be wondering if the sequel addresses the mysterious key that Kevin James was after. It is mentioned in TThe Wrath of Becky. Becky still carries it. Kate Siegel appears as a character that knows the meaning of the key, adding a new element to the mystery. It’s one of the most ridiculous scenes in the movie. At least until the scene that follows it.It’s not clear why Milott, Murnion, Morris, and the Skyes didn’t make the Becky

sequel themselves. It’s unclear if they were asked back or not. It’s a pity they didn’t come back, because they could have produced a sequel that was more in keeping with its predecessor. Angel and Coote, however, took the character in a different direction that I didn’t enjoy. After watching Becky, I was left hoping for a sequel. The Wrath of Becky is another “be careful with what you wish for”. Diego should have just chewed up the script for this one.Quiver Distribution is giving The Wrath of Becky

a theatrical release on May 26.5

Entertainment - Media News Watch originally published at Entertainment - Media News Watch