Those of you who know me know that I am a big fan of the first two seasons of Director and Producer McG’s over the top Lethal Weapon series, so it should be no surprise that his Netflix film The Babysitter was such a fun watch for me the year that came out. This is a film that does a pretty good job of subverting expectations by setting itself up in a completely different genre (something akin to Miike’s Audition) only to take a huge left turn and spiral into a gory, over the top gore fest with tons of laughs along the way.
The Babysitter starts out almost like a “Superbad” esque coming of age teen comedy romp that comes out of the gate hard and doesn’t pull any punches. We see Cole, a fourteen year old kid in a time of transition and awkwardness. This theme of growing up and the awkwardness involved as well as the concept of facing your fears is pretty much the driving point of the movie. Events then transpire that really plunges this movie into an insanely fun horror romp which manages to be hilarious and cute at times without being too much of a parody of the genre.
*Spoiler time*
The movie does a really good job right off the bat of setting up this really cute and endearing relationship between Cole and Bee (Samara Weaving aka Hugo Weaving’s niece), the titular babysitter. Their friendship in the first act is honestly so fun to watch where they discuss who their top five would be in a made up sci-fi type scenario where they are tasked with facing off against a potential “big bad” or when they hang out in Cole’s backyard watching the 1971 western “Billy Jack” that they obviously know all of the words to and clearly bond over. This entire first act is actually incredible the way that it sets up foreshadowing for the rest of the movie, because almost every beat that is touched on comes back in some way later on when things really start to go south. I would also be remiss to fail to mention Cole’s relationship with his classmate and neighbour Melanie, and how when they share scenes together there’s this really cool effect where the world around them moves in slow motion hinting that there is some sort of romance brewing between them. In fact, McG uses a number of really cool effects, while not exactly new ideas, really takes what would otherwise be just an okay script and makes it a movie that has no place being as fun as it is. Take for instance the title cards that pop up when new characters are introduced or using this neat “Sherlock” type text overlay when text messages are sent. It just makes the experience so much fun and reminds us that we’re here for a good time and not to take things so seriously. There are a ton of call outs in this movie as well which I think is so fun. For example Mad Men gets a bit of a funny call out where it’s set up as this representation of Cole not being deemed ready for adulthood by his father, but when Cole sneaks off to binge it he decidedly shuts his laptop after and says “who cares…”
The movie hits a HUGE left turn as Bee puts Cole to bed and some of her friends come over for a game of spin the bottle. We get a whole new host of classically stereotypical (in the best way possible) characters who are introduced incredibly efficiently. We get Max the quarterback (Robbie Amell), Allison the vapid cheerleader (Bella Thorne), John the comedic relief of the group (King Bach), Sonya the edgy art student (Hana Mae Lee) and Samuel the token nerd. You really get to know who each character is in a fairly short amount of time which is nice and the 70’s style title cards for each character are a really nice touch. This scene really speaks to the idea of setting this movie up as some sort of 80’s callback style teen comedy, sex appeal and all, only to yank the rug out from under you as soon as Bee plunges two knives into Samuel’s head as part of a ritualistic sacrifice and Cole secretly witnesses the whole thing.
I love how self aware this movie is as well. Moments for example when cole passes out and finds himself tied to a chair facing his would be attackers only to ask “why is he shirtless” or later on when Bee takes a shot at him with a shotgun he blurts out “why are there guns?” before scampering off. McG really has a way of using those beats to add these split seconds of comedic levity which, in some of the most intense moments, puts the viewer back at ease and reminds you that this is supposed to be fun. I also love how each one of the antagonists gets this preamble with Cole as well which is for the most part relatively positive. Like how Robbie Amell’s psychopathic quarterback “Max” attempts to teach Cole how to deal with his bullies knowing full well that he has the intention of killing him with his bare hands after. This sets up a near almost perfect pacing to the movie which is hilarious to me because when you google writer Brian Duffield’s name, one of the first things that pops up is “Why do people keep buying scripts from Brian Duffield…”
After dispatching the teen protagonists one at a time in a mostly gory, usually hilarious, and often accidental fashion, we learn that Bee’s babysitting gig is a means for her to carefully extract blood from her sleeping kids in order to use an ancient demonic text that allows her and her cult members to obtain what I can only assume is ultimate power. We come to a heroic climax as Cole faces his fear of driving and drives his neighbour’s muscle car straight through his house in order to finish off his babysitter. Following that, with Bee pinned under the car, we actually get a pretty touching scene where Cole describes his sci-fi dream team that consists of Captain Adama (Battlestar Galactica), Data (Star Trek: TNG), The Predator, Cole himself and Bee. Almost like the final death rasp of his entire childhood and any sort of childish fears or hangups he had at the beginning of the movie.
Finally a post credits scene suggests that Bee is still alive which leads me to speculate (along with a savvy google search) that The Babysitter 2 is in the works and if I’m being honest that’s something I am one hundred percent here for.
If you love cheesy teen comedy, or B-horror (or if you’re hung over and need to kill an afternoon) this could potentially be for you.
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