The Babysitter (2017)
Sometimes I watch a movie and a joke is made in the first few minutes that lets me know that there's going to be a sense of humour present that will just not gel with me. In this particular Netflix original, it was probably the excess of jokes about "taking it out the butt" and calling the main character a pussy. For all of the times when we might not agree about what "funny" is, there are flashes of something special in The Babysitter. It makes the other stuff even worse. Oh, horror comedy, you tricky little nut of a genre.
The Babysitter follows a kid as he learns that his super hot babysitter is also a super devout devil worshipper who might be sacrificing people after he's gone to bed. Fun plot, generally well executed. Samara Weaving is great as the titular babysitter, and the teenage actors are remarkably un-painful. In fact, once the movie gets over how great it thinks it is, it ends up being pretty good.
I've mentioned that I like my horror - and especially my horror comedy - with tongue in cheek, and for the most part I think this does that. The characters who accompany Bee (Weaving) in her murderous cult are paper thin stereotypes, they all seem to be pretty in on the joke and the comedy comes at the absurdity of them. Some of their jokes do actually land - Andrew Bachelor has some great ones. The latter half of the movie is action well sustained with great kills, goriness embraced and a good balance of the bizarre with the brilliant.
For a movie with so many good things going on, it did not need so much of what it had. It's okay to relax sometimes, people who make movies! Excess is fun - stylistic excess - and I even liked the text on screen at pivotal moments, but you know what isn't fun? Hypersexualised girl on girl kissing in slow motion for literally no reason other than...girl on girl is hot and everyone watching is a straight dude. I could have done with marginally less of Bella Thorne's character, because I felt like she wasn't pushing it quite hard enough, and I could have done with a lot less of the pussy jokes. A lot of it was just too much.
I liked the little things. I loved the sweet little touches between the lead (Judah Lewis) and his best friend (Emily Alyn Lind). I really loved the times the movie found to be sweet about the experience of growing up, and when the relationship between protagonist and antagonist.
Rating: 7.5/10 - In spite of myself, I got really into this movie as it went on. It fell into the commercial horror trap of having a lot of potential and being even more let down by the places that it was just too much.
The Babysitter follows a kid as he learns that his super hot babysitter is also a super devout devil worshipper who might be sacrificing people after he's gone to bed. Fun plot, generally well executed. Samara Weaving is great as the titular babysitter, and the teenage actors are remarkably un-painful. In fact, once the movie gets over how great it thinks it is, it ends up being pretty good.
I've mentioned that I like my horror - and especially my horror comedy - with tongue in cheek, and for the most part I think this does that. The characters who accompany Bee (Weaving) in her murderous cult are paper thin stereotypes, they all seem to be pretty in on the joke and the comedy comes at the absurdity of them. Some of their jokes do actually land - Andrew Bachelor has some great ones. The latter half of the movie is action well sustained with great kills, goriness embraced and a good balance of the bizarre with the brilliant.
For a movie with so many good things going on, it did not need so much of what it had. It's okay to relax sometimes, people who make movies! Excess is fun - stylistic excess - and I even liked the text on screen at pivotal moments, but you know what isn't fun? Hypersexualised girl on girl kissing in slow motion for literally no reason other than...girl on girl is hot and everyone watching is a straight dude. I could have done with marginally less of Bella Thorne's character, because I felt like she wasn't pushing it quite hard enough, and I could have done with a lot less of the pussy jokes. A lot of it was just too much.
I liked the little things. I loved the sweet little touches between the lead (Judah Lewis) and his best friend (Emily Alyn Lind). I really loved the times the movie found to be sweet about the experience of growing up, and when the relationship between protagonist and antagonist.
Rating: 7.5/10 - In spite of myself, I got really into this movie as it went on. It fell into the commercial horror trap of having a lot of potential and being even more let down by the places that it was just too much.
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