Review of The Babysitter (2017) by Trgerry — 31 Mar 2020

Cole (Judah Lewis) is your typical twelve year old. On the cusp of becoming a teenager he's dealing with all your typical coming of age problems. From dealing with his awkward Gen-X parents (Leslie Bibb & Ken Marino) failing marriage to bullies (Miles J. Harvey) that follows him home from school. He'll learn to manage his budding feelings for his classmates (Emily Alyn Lind) and his babysitter (Samara Weaving). All while surviving an assault from a Satanic Murder Cult (Robbie Amell, Hanna Mae Lee, Bella Thorne & Andrew Bachelor). The Babysitter is a 2017 Netflix horror film from director McG (Terminator Salvation, Charlies Angels). Famous for some of the best music videos of the 90's; this is the first feature from McG I've actually enjoyed. It's schlock without being schlocky. It's a perfect grindhouse-esque B-movie elevated to perfection. The plot is tight, gruesome, and funny with a nice runtime of an hour twenty-five. The story has tons of set-up and payoffs with enough twists to keep you engaged. Its special effects are mostly practical, beautiful and only once did an effect stick out as fake. There are tons of great uses of slow-mo to show a deeper relationship between characters. Text abruptly pops up on screen in a funny stylistic fashion. The staging of every scene is set up with care which makes me think the films storyboarding must have been incredible. Not only is the technical direction of The Babysitter perfect; the cast is fantastic as well. Judah Lewis excels as a confused preteen trying to figure out who he is. He has a real emotional journey over the course of the film that is always grounded and real. Meanwhile Samara Weaving is devastating in her role as Bee the Babysitter. A perfect blend of charming and predatory, she'll leave you guessing Bee's true intentions long after the movie ends. Her band of merry murders are also entertaining. With a stand out performance from Robbie Amell who plays a psycho-killer more charming and fun than Ted Bundy.

I'm actually disappointed it's taken me three years and a global pandemic to sit down and watch the Babysitter. It's been on my radar since its release in October 2017. Now it's one of my favourite horror movies. With the Babysitter 2 is post-production at the time of writing this, I hope we'll see a release in October 2020. For those reasons I'm giving the Babysitter a grade of perfect 10.