In 2020, a few months into quarantine, Becky was released. Fresh, bloody, and fun, the dark, comedic thriller followed a young girl (Lulu Wilson) who lost her mother to cancer. Angry, she reluctantly heads on vacation with her father, his new girlfriend and her son. Their retreat is quickly throttled by the arrival of neo-nazis who kill her father. Becky then does what you would expect most pre-teens to do and kills them all.
Now, the titular character is back in The Wrath of Becky. A few years older and constantly escaping the foster care, we see her essentially establish a life. She’s working in a diner and living with an elderly Black woman named Elena (Denise Burse), who provides her a small sense of peace and stability. Every day they go through their blessings over breakfast with Becky’s dog Diego.
Very early on in the sequel’s runtime, a trio of men come into Becky’s work making inappropriate and sexist jokes. Having enough, she scolds one with coffee before sending them on their way. They end up following her back to Elena’s where they kill Becky’s mother figure and kidnap her dog.
She follows them to a known white supremest’s house (a menacingly real Seann William Scott), who are laying low waiting to stage a January 6th-like revolt upon the state capital. What ensues is a cat and mouse game where Becky holds all the cards.
Lulu Wilson is unflinching in her portrayal of Becky. She relishes in the film’s violence and plays the few emotional parts with little melodrama. It’s rare for an actress so young to have a character that has defined her career in such a way, but she has managed to do it.
The difference between seventeen year old Becky and thirteen year old Becky – the difference between the two films really is that the younger version of the character is reacting to her circumstances rather than planning them. She spends the last forty-five minutes of the newest film executing these well orchestrated kills that lack the spontaneity of the first. While there are a few things that don’t go according to her plan, most everything does and it kind of takes away from the magic of this premise and this character.
This could be because a whole new creative team is behind the sequel, held by directors Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, with the former writing the screenplay. The Wrath of Becky keeps the invigorating music tradition of the first film, but its overall tone lacks the magic of the original. The Becky in this film is cold and calculated. Becky was an underdog in the previous movie, whose capacity was discovered under severe duress.
The Wrath of Becky is in theaters now. Watch the trailer below, and check out our interview with Lulu Wilson here.
