Boo 2 Deserves More Than a Few Boos

Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween does its job of making the audience afraid. Afraid that Tyler Perry will create another Madea movie. Rather than the horror scenes, it’s the bad acting and terrible script that has people running out of the theater. It will have you looking over your shoulder hoping you don’t have to see another film this bad again. The film features Tyler Perry’s popular character Madea aka Mabel Simmons played by Perry himself. She is the loud and intimidating gun swinging grandmother that fans of the Madea films love.

The film begins with Perry (Brian) showing up to his daughter’s school to surprise her with a gift on her eighteenth birthday. The audience is introduced to Brian’s daughter Tiffany (Diamond White) and her best friend Gabriella (Inanna Sarkis ). Tiffany is the stereotypical bratty teenager with a bad attitude. She’s the type to make other bratty teenagers roll their eyes due to how forced the character is. Her friend Gabriella is the sweet naive character that is not as forced but just as bad. Tiffany is upset to see her father outside with a gift and birthday hat and makes it clear to him that she is tired of his childish antics. She speaks down to him and makes her contempt for him very clear. While many teens have combative relationships with their parents, this scene is unnatural and lacks authenticity. The audience is then introduced to Brian’s ex-wife Deborah (Taja V. Simpson) who surprises Tiffany with a car despite Brian’s disapproval. Deborah has just as little respect for Brian as Tiffany does and it’s clear that a bad divorce is in their history. Tiffany drives off in her new car with her dad yelling for her to go straight home.

With the plethora of bad scenes in this film, some of the honorable mentions are the scenes in which Uncle Joe (Tyler Perry), Madea (Tyler Perry), Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis) and Hattie (Patrice Lovely) are in Brian’s living room for Tiffany’s birthday party. The “old people” jokes and raunchy commentary are cringe at best. The actors laugh at their own jokes because no one else will.

Rather than going home, Tiffany drives her new car to the frat house of Upsilon Theta where we meet Jonathan played by YouTuber Yousef Erakat and his band of frat brothers. The fraternity boy stereotype is overplayed in this scene as a 27-year-old man attempts to play a 20-year-old frat boy. His character is dull and obnoxious making Jonathan probably the worst character in the entire movie. This scene provides backstory from the first movie in which Tiffany went to a party at the frat house when she was seventeen and it was shut down by her father and great-aunt Madea. The frat brothers are reluctant to invite her because of the events the previous year but Jonathan gives in to his hormones and spills the beans after Tiffany flirts with him. The place is rumored to be dangerous but Tiffany and Gabriella go to the party with their friend Leah (Lexy Panterra) and meet up with the frat brothers of Upsilon Theta. Everyone is drinking and having fun until weird things start happening. Madea and her band of senior citizens decide to save the girls after Madea overhears their plan to go to the party.

The film features weak jump scares that attempt to remind the audience that there is meant to be something scary about this movie. In reality, the weak plot is the only thing to make you shiver with fear. The movie attempts to teach a lesson about safety and honesty but the only lesson I took from this film is to stay clear of anything that has the names Perry and Madea attached to it. If there wasn’t a signal before that the Madea movies needed to end. This movie has all the red flags.