"The Wrath of Becky," a rather tame revenge thriller, places a teenage girl in conflict with a group of Neo-Nazis secluded in a cabin. This sequel to "Becky," the 2020 film featuring Lulu Wilson as Becky, a young assassin targeting skinheads, fails to exceed the original's modest success.
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In both films, the Nazi antagonists are reduced to mere genre clichés, irrelevant to the primary feud between Becky and the Noble Men, a nationalist militia. These Neo-Nazi villains are easy prey, their exaggerated defeat seemingly designed for audience satisfaction.
Both films necessitate personal loss as a catalyst for Becky’s actions against the fascist sympathizers. The menace these dull-witted goons represent for real American hate groups like QAnon and the Proud Boys isn't sufficient motivation. Once again, the narrative is personal.
"The Wrath of Becky" repetitively mimics the first film's dramatic premise. Now sixteen, Becky witnesses another group of men murder a cherished caretaker. The sudden, seemingly random murder of Becky’s biological father, Jeff (Joel McHale), was a distinct turning point in the original. It shapes the adolescent Becky's emotional journey. The movie also introduced the struggle between Becky and her new stepfamily.
In the sequel, Becky crosses paths with a group of insecure men led by the slick Sean (Matt Angel) following an awkward coffee-spill incident. The men stumble upon and kill Elena (Denise Burse), the only foster parent that Becky has bonded with during the years since the original film. Becky swears revenge on Sean's group. She tracks them down to a secluded lake house. There they are awaiting instructions from Darryl (Seann William Scott), a cryptic cult leader.
The amusement in "The Wrath of Becky" lies in watching Darryl's brutish minions squirm as they plan a coup resembling the January 6th incident. Becky unveils herself and starts eliminating Darryl's crew using her cunning booby traps and the Proud Men's weaponry.
Though the plot of eradicating bigots makes for decent enough post-grindhouse entertainment, the gratuitously violent scenes in "The Wrath of Becky" are often presented as humorous rather than genuinely horrific, with the humor falling flat most of the time.
Directors Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote seem to imply these killings are the sequel's core focus. They use Becky to make statements about the fun of killing such villains. In spite of this rationale, the films lack significant Jewish characters. While there are some Black supporting roles, Darryl and his crew don’t seem to exhibit particularly racist or antisemitic tendencies. Their downfall at the hands of a teenage girl is played for laughs, seemingly arguing that even a high schooler could defeat them.
Unlike "Becky," which featured Kevin James in an impressive performance, Scott in "The Wrath of Becky" appears more annoyed than furious, reducing his portrayal to mere stunt-casting. Darryl mildly intimidates Sean and his crew, who unwittingly led Becky to Darryl's cabin. But, the men are never quite repugnant or absurdly idiotic enough to make for satisfying targets.
The creators of "The Wrath of Becky" acknowledge a line of decency that Becky's killing spree should cross but stop short of it. An early scene features Becky fantasizing about killing a diner patron (John D. Hickman), only for it to be a daydream, as she assures us that she "didn’t actually do it." The statement seems unnecessary, suggesting an underlying fear of pushing boundaries too far.
