THE WRATH OF BECKY (2023)

Studio:     Quiver Distribution
Director:    Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote
Writer:     Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote
Producer:  Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman, Chadd Harbold, Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Tracy Rosenblum, Russ Posternak
Stars:     Lulu Wilson, Denise Burse, Kate Siegel, Courtney Gains, Michael Sirow, Aaron Dalla Villa, Matt Angel, Jill Larson, Seann William Scott

Review Score:

Summary:

Two years after surviving a harrowing ordeal, a vengeful teenager uses her unique skills to take on a terrorist cell of misogynist men.

Synopsis:     

Review:

2023 seems like a louder year than usual in terms of discourse about “Who asked for this?” sequels.  Perhaps the poster child for such projects, “Avatar: The Way of Water” finally hit theaters after years of skeptics scratching their heads over its mere existence, reigniting debates about the first film’s questionable cultural impact and the “Name a Character Other Than Jake Sully” litmus test.  Not long after, the innocuous announcement of “Hocus Pocus 3” had some eye-rollers ignoring the property’s popularity to accuse it of being another unnecessary installment in a series they didn’t think should be a series in the first place.  That’s to say nothing of the wave of supposed blockbuster fatigue apparently haranguing longstanding action franchises and bombastic superhero epics.

I’d planned to base the intro of this “The Wrath of Becky” review around a cynical examination of that trend.  Then I realized that even though my premise was that it too was a sequel audiences never really demanded and weren’t exactly thirsting for, the examples I just cited put me on track to undermine the very point I was hoping to make.

I mean, I get that “Avatar” was once the biggest movie of all time from one of Hollywood’s most powerful filmmakers.  Yet I too questioned the wisdom behind bankrolling four sequels to a movie everyone saw, but didn’t necessarily adore, much less vividly remember.  Box office success for “The Way of Water,” however, says doubters were the real dummies.

So what do I know?  Maybe like Pandora, the Walking Dead world, the DCEU, or whatever IP a naysayer doesn’t “get,” somewhere out there exist fans anxious for more misadventures of a vengeful teenager, and maybe I was wrong for wondering if the original “Becky” was worth a follow-up.  Maybe?

“The Wrath of Becky” is a sequel to 2020’s “Becky” (review here), a passable home invasion flick whose hook was seeing comedian Kevin James cast as a nasty Neo-Nazi getting his comeuppance served by a resourceful girl avenging her father’s brutal murder.  The writers are new.  The directors are new.  What stays the same is Lulu Wilson returns to the title role three years older and her foil is once again a predominantly comedic actor playing against type: Seann William Scott, commonly known as Stifler from “American Pie,” taking the role of Darryl, a misogynist militia man who’s all about ‘merica, apple pie, and insurrections.

“Becky” was thin as thrillers go, basically consisting of a simple setup that hit pat plot beats for easy action where a kid carves up a couple of creeps for 80 minutes.  “The Wrath of Becky” follows the same simple formula, effectively boiling down to “Becky gets motivated to take on another crooked cadre of aggressive adult men.”  Violence of course ensues.  For better or for worse, there’s not much more to the movie than that.  “The Wrath of Becky” even reuses a lot of tropes that were already trite the first time around, like a Rambo-style “gearing up” montage and a cowardly cohort who has a timely change of heart regarding his complicity in despicable crimes.

I don’t remember the first “Becky” well enough to recall if this was true then, but “The Wrath of Becky” creates a splash of style with an occasionally tongue-in-cheek tone.  The kills get gruesome, what with one head exploding via grenade and two others taking bullets or blades to the face.  Becky also talks to the audience for freeze-frame sequences where she imagines bloody mutilations, although in at least one instance the comedic carnage leads to some questionable characterization, like Becky dreaming of slashing the throat of a diner customer who called her “Sweetheart” and asked for his toast to be pre-buttered.  I’m not sure rudeness at that low level deserves death, but she longs for satisfying slaughter regardless.

Then again, this is also a film with a coda so ridiculously implausible, you have to accept that it’s detrimental to your entertainment value to take anything too seriously anyway.  After all, the story starts with Becky in pigtails placating a foster family of devout Christians saying grace over Live, Laugh, Love candles.  That vague cartoon vibe excuses some of the movie’s absurdity, although it’s too erratically employed to really root “The Wrath of Becky” with a consistent humor to horror ratio.

But “The Wrath of Becky” is rooted in the social climate that spawned its script.  Without using single-word descriptors to pigeonhole a particular demographic, let’s just say that Darryl and his villainous cronies represent a specific segment of men who aren’t likely to vote Democrat, probably protest Pride Night at their local baseball stadium, and worship a certain automaker who made a $44 billion mistake.  “The Wrath of Becky” certainly makes no secret about who it means to skewer, literally and figuratively, what with regular references to 4chan, OK finger signs, and other symbols that align the film’s fictional domestic terrorists with ones who are all too real.

It’s actually an odd target though, because the flipside to that demo, i.e. the contingent of potential viewers who do vote Democrat, who don’t believe drinking Bud Light makes them gay, and who do take the word of credible doctors over a dudebro podcaster when it comes to vaccine efficacy, aren’t the type to harbor wish fulfillment fantasies where a traumatized teenager eviscerates enemies in the most vindictive manner possible.  Ironically, in realizing that “The Wrath of Becky” alienates one half of its audience by likening them to the antagonists, and doesn’t offer overwhelming escapist appeal to the other half, it makes me think my original “Who is this for exactly?” supposition could still be in play.

Once again though, what do I know?  “The Wrath of Becky” advances the MacGuffin mythology introduced in the first film by adding another cryptic clue to the mysterious key that “Becky” never explained, so maybe we’ll be doing this all over again when “Becky’s Revenge” inevitably turns this into a trilogy.  Someone must want that, right?  Maybe?

Review Score: 55