The wrath of becky In the midst of the dog days of 2020, the thriller “Becky,” brought to life by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, emerged as a gleeful yet dark home-invasion hit. Its audacious, tasteless thrills offered solace to a world grappling with the COVID-19 lockdown. Now, Lulu Wilson returns to the screen as the iconic Becky, the sole survivor of her previous rampage. Brace yourselves for “The Wrath of Becky,” where age hasn’t tempered her fiery homicidal spirit, and destiny serves up a fresh batch of wrongdoers to provoke her vengeance.
However, the directorial reins have passed into the capable hands of Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. While their efforts yield slightly diminished rewards, they remain captivating. Quiver is set to release this eagerly awaited sequel in theaters across the U.S., with home formats dates yet to be announced.
Three years ago, Becky was a furious 13-year-old, still reeling from her mother’s tragic battle with cancer and grappling with her father’s audacious decision to enter a new romantic relationship. Her anger and bitterness made her well-equipped to face off against Kevin James’ gang of escaped convicts, who descended upon their summer house in pursuit of a mysterious object. The ensuing battle between criminal might and righteous fury was implausible yet irresistibly darkly comedic, and Wilson’s portrayal of the pint-sized warrior-queen was nothing short of inspirational.
Fast forward to the present, and Becky is now a not-so-sweet 16-year-old, determined to stay off the grid and out of the system. She resorts to robbing foster parents, with no intention of staying with them. However, she has found refuge under the roof of Elena, an elderly woman who shares her skepticism about humanity. It’s unclear if Becky attends school, but she does work as a waitress in a local diner. It’s there that she encounters three troublesome locals who quickly earn her ire, and a scalding cup of coffee ends up being their just desserts.
Regrettably, these men aren’t the forgiving type, as Becky soon discovers in a harrowing home break-in. She loses her benefactress and, quite possibly, her beloved dog, Diego. In this small town, it doesn’t take Becky long to track down the perpetrators. She’s once again armed and ready for vengeance, and the bonus is that these thugs are connected to a noxiously misogynistic group of extremists.
These “Noble Men” have stashed an arsenal of paramilitary gear in a barn owned by their leader, Darryl, played by Seann William Scott. When Darryl realizes that his new recruits have stirred up unnecessary trouble on the eve of a planned government insurrection, he is far from pleased. Patience wears thin as these tough guys realize that they are under siege by a teenage girl who has commandeered their weapons and refuses to bow to their assumed superiority based on gender or ethnicity.
Director-writers Angel and Coote, known for their work on horror-adjacent thrillers “Hypnotic” and “The Open House,” give this genre piece a more snarky and over-the-top tone. While “Becky” had a raw edge, “The Wrath of Becky” feels more conventional. Wilson, who was 16 during filming, embodies a generic female action figure – agile and indomitable. Her quips to the audience lack the sharpness of the first film. The pacing is brisk, but the real action doesn’t kick in until the final half-hour. While there’s gore, it doesn’t match the punchy, spiciness of the original.
The film’s timely critique of pseudo-patriotism, akin to groups like the Proud Boys, is commendable. However, it’s a tad too neat in the way it hands the antagonists to Becky on a platter, allowing her to flex her avenging girl power. But what “The Wrath of Becky” excels in is its villain. Seann William Scott embodies Darryl with control-freak zeal and humorlessness. He’s the kind of character that’s genuinely alarming, a puritanical fanatic willing to sacrifice everything to “save” the nation. While the violence is less memorable, Darryl commands a memorable exit that is chilling.
While “The Wrath of Becky” offers entertainment, the novelty has worn thin as our heroine has grown to near-adulthood. The directors deliver a competent and energetic, yet somewhat stylistically uninspired package, with occasional self-congratulatory touches like freeze-frames and graphics of Becky’s inner thoughts. However, they fall short of the pint-sized, fierce Becky we came to love in 2020. And as the second chapter unfolds, it leaves us with tantalizing hints of an unresolved narrative cipher from the first film, suggesting that this might not be the last we’ve seen of her.