Review: The Babysitter (2017)

I'm not sure why I never got around to watching this film when I have Netflix and love horror movies.  Laziness maybe?  It's right up my alley - comedic and violent and it has a killer performance from Samara Weaving as the titular babysitter.

Not that it isn't without faults.  While he does a good job as Cole, Judah Lewis is saddled with some stupid characterization as a kid who is scared of everything.  I'm sure there are people like that in real life, but in this film it very much reads as a Movie Character With an Arc type of screenplay writing - and not a particularly engaging version of it.  It's really annoying, because otherwise this is a breezy and witty screenplay.

To give a brief summary, Cole (Lewis) is 12 years old and scared of everything.  His parents go out of town and leave him in the care of his babysitter, Bee (Weaving).  He stays up to see what she does after he goes to bed, and it just happens to be the night that Bee and her friends - who are in a cult - decide to sacrifice someone and steal Cole's blood in an evil ritual meant to give them their wildest dreams and wishes.

Fairly boilerplate as far as horror goes, though the movie does have a few twists and turns to keep the formula fresh.  Cole is forced to defend himself, and the various cult members die as he tries to get to safety.  Their deaths are fairly inventive, and a few - while not anything new to the genre - still manage to surprise in the way that they happen.

But really, this movie is all about Samara Weaving's performance.  She oozes charisma on the screen - necessary to justify her as both the crush object for Cole and the leader of a cult - and she effortlessly switches from cool to sexy to scary with ease throughout the film.  I don't know that she is a villain you root for, but she is definitely a villain that is fun to watch.

If I were to compare this film to anything, it would be All Cheerleaders Die, another horror film with a twisted sense of humor.  Definitely worth a watch - it's a shame it took me this long to get to it.

8 out of 10