Review of Better Watch Out (2017) by Irvin K — 06 Oct 2017

HAPPY HANEKE - My Review of BETTER WATCH OUT (2 Stars).

Having been born a Jew, I'm no expert on Christmas. Hell, I'm no expert on anything Jewish either, having never studied or practiced the religion I was born into, so don't count on my expertise when it comes to holiday themed films. I've never been a fan of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE or MIRACLE ON 34th STREET. The sound of sleigh bells and the red/green color combo send me on a retreat to the nearest deli for anything on rye, and I'm a bad Jew! My love for these movies begins and end with A CHRISTMAS STORY, because, well...leg lamps and frozen tongues.

Now, the home invasion thriller...that's a genre I can really get behind. Nothing chills me to the bone more than a person standing outside a door in the middle of the night (THE STRANGERS), a blind woman facing off against intruders (WAIT UNTIL DARK), or two polite teens slowly but surely terrorizing a family (FUNNY GAMES). That last one, by the great Michael Haneke, turned this type of film on its ears, commenting on the audience's participation in violence and subverting its expectations.

Enter BETTER WATCH OUT, a Christmas thriller, from director Chris Peckover and co-writer Zack Kahn, which aims to subvert the genre with its unlikely marriage of HOME ALONE to FUNNY GAMES. Twelve-year-old Luke (Levi Miller from PAN) gets left at home for the evening by his parents (fun cameos by Virginia Madsen and Patrick Warburton). His cute, smart babysitter, Ashley (Olivia DeJonge of THE VISIT) will take care of him, but Luke has such a crush on Ashley that goes far beyond "watching Netflix and chill". Egged on by his best friend Garrett (a scene-stealing Ed Oxenbould), Luke intends to put the moves on his prey, who's five years his senior. Like any popular young woman, Ashley barely knows Luke's alive as she tends to her phone with texts and calls from her boyfriend and her ex. She's an astute multi-tacker and a pretty good critical thinker.

As Luke starts to put the moves on Ashley, an intruder disrupts his plans, leading to a night of terror. I won't spoil what comes next, because this film has a pretty great twist, showing it has more on its mind than strangers disrupting suburban bliss. BETTER WATCH OUT explores smug male entitlement, even as early as a scene where Warburton puts the moves on the babysitter. From there we get male rage, male sociopathy, and male...well, males are just bad if you haven't heard! We ruin everything!

For me, however, BETTER WATCH OUT, for all of its ambitions, doesn't quite land. Maybe because it feels like FUNNY GAMES without the true sense of dread. It feels more like a genre exercise rather than a singular triumph. As the tension mounts, our main characters talk and scream too much for people who are trying to hide from a killer. Peckover clearly loves film and knows his jump scares and creep-outs. It's swiftly moving, twisty-turny, colorful, violent, and wickedly fun at times. It makes you question everything that's good and wholesome about the holidays, but its shiny tone keeps you from feeling the impact when things get bloody. Luke comes across as an even more enterprising main character than little Kevin McAllister as he sets one life-threatening booby trap after another, but in the end, it all feels a tad toothless. I kept wanting the post-twist footage to look darker and grittier, but Peckover maintains the same overfit palette throughout. It's almost like a Hallmark movie with a body count. A shot of blood mixing together with yellow paint got a laugh, because it looks like catsup and mustard instead of the real thing. The film looks like it was shot in a studio (which it was, in Australia), giving it a similar gloss to that of KRAMPUS. It's intentional and entertaining, but I didn't feel the dread as I did with FUNNY GAMES. It's Soundstage Realness. Had he instead opted for true terror in an increasingly real-looking environment, the filmmakers would have had a solid Holiday horror classic on its hands. Instead, it's going to please fans of the genre, but it's not going to make the list that I check twice. It has all the elements of an effective thriller, and it truly is trying to say something about the male ego, but it just didn't get under my skin. I'm probably just a Bitter Betty here, and I fully expect to be called a Scrooge. To that I say, "Bah humbug off my lawn!".