By Chadwick Webb

In December 2019, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. That time was scary, and it made seeing movies in the theater impossible, but with all the uncertainty in the world, we certainly started watching more movies on streaming. One of those streaming movies was an original action/thriller that came out of nowhere called Becky (2020). Little did we know that the small, independent movie about a young girl battling a fringe right-wing extremist group would become a franchise in the 2020s.

I became a big admirer of Lulu Wilson’s career after I saw Mike Flanagan‘s Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016). In that film, Wilson plays a young girl named Doris, who becomes possessed by a demonic entity after her mother uses an ouija board to con grieving people in a house with a haunted pass. Wilson is on another plane of existence in this role. She’s not just a creepy little girl. She’s THE creepy little girl. While possessed, she gives a whole monologue to her sister‘s boyfriend about what it feels like to be strangled to death.

Can you see why I became enamored with her acting at such a young age? She was also great in Annabelle: Creation (2017) as well as the Mike Flanagan Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). It’s no wonder that her membership in the Mike Flanagan FlanaFamily would catapult Wilson to star in this gritty, violent Becky trilogy. I mean, it just fits, right? In fact, after the success of Becky, Kate Siegel (Hush, 2016), who married Mike Flanagan in 2016, joined the cast of The Wrath of Becky (2023) and will continue to star in The Last Temptation of Becky (2026). When I say it’s a FlanaFamily, I mean it. Siegel and Wilson are both slated to appear in Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist: Martyrs (2027).

The Becky trilogy is indeed a star-making vehicle for Wilson, but how good is it? Honestly, in its concept, at least in the beginning, it feels very reminiscent of so many other action films a la Die Hard (1988), but its style feels unique. Wilson commanding the role is huge. She gives me the impression that Becky hates Nazis more than anyone, including Lieutenant Aldo Raine from Inglourious Bastards (2009). In fact, Becky encounters many fascists in her journeys. One of the unique aspects of the franchise is that all the main antagonists are played by well-known, likable comedic actors.

In Becky, the Neo-Nazi Dominick Lewis, played by Kevin James (The King of Queens, 1998-2007). While he does a good job playing a confident leader and hateful bigot, I’m not sure if he fully transcends his comedic background. Though in the sequel, Wrath, Sean William Scott (Final Destination, 2000) floored me as a very believable “Noble Man” who has a warped sense of reality. He puts “the cause” above all else, even innocent lives. Finally, even though I wasn’t fully on board with James’s portrayal, I was even less on board with Neil Patrick Harris’ take on a Nazi leader. Harris is a great actor, but I think I just can’t take him seriously as a true bad guy because he’s so likable.

Regardless of whether these villains are fully believable as despicable, monstrous bigots, they all become fodder for Becky to target. The series may have started as a revenge story against one set of fascist assholes, but it evolves into a grander story of Becky defending against and targeting Nazis/Neo-Nazis. Becky HATES Nazis, but so do most people, so seeing her take a stand with absolutely no mercy is refreshing. At the end of the day, people with these kinds of hateful views put everyone in danger. Especially in a world where fascism is on the rise in so many places, it’s nice to see that Becky was ahead of schedule in the fight to protest against it.

The series keeps improving with each installment, solidifying its identity. The first movie felt rather serious, but Wrath steers heavily into the camp at times. Specifically, the silliness of the white supremacist with the son named Adolf, who pleads for his life and knows his son‘s name is a dealbreaker for Becky. With Last Temptation, we go to a whole new level of camp. The only way I can see me not understanding the point is if Harris’ performance was playing into the camp. However, the best camp in the movie involves Becky reacting to how crazy the fascist were and also the giant, fascist elephant in the room.

The big Nazi plan is to resurrect Adolf Hitler, which is such a silly, ridiculous send-up of what a lot of hateful fascist dream about. Instead of allowing this threat to loom, Becky takes him out immediately, basically saying suicide is no longer an option. Instead, Hitler dies, again, while completely naked, adding a humiliation factor to it. This occurs as Becky systematically wipes out general Wilhelm Reuss’ entire family, which is an interesting element to the antagonists of the franchise.

Normally, the antagonists have “found families” in the series, operating to serve an agenda under a collective body. In Becky, it was a group of Neo-Nazi escaped prisoners who acted as a gang. The adversaries in Wrath were another group of “noble men,” but just like the gang in the first film, there doesn’t seem to be anything noble about them as a hate group, they can’t seem to even have respect for each other. This is also felt in Last Temptation, in which General Reuss doesn’t even care about his family and views them as weak. It’s the only way you can sympathize with self-declared Nazis is  when they are made and then discarded by an even bigger Nazi.

Ultimately, the Becky series is like the Die Hard series. It started off with a good movie about a person‘s life being invaded while they are separated from the main action, giving them an opportunity to get the upper hand. It tries to go bigger with every sequel after to keep it fresh to differ success. Well, Die Hard is a masterpiece, actually, but the point is that Becky is a good series that felt similar to other things. However, it hasn’t yet made its own A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), so there is an opportunity here to end on a good note and have a solid series with no hiccups. As it is, these movies are very enjoyable with something to say, so let’s keep it that way!

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟stars