Movie Review: The Babysitter (2017)
Synopsis: 12-year-old Cole is bullied at school and is afraid of just about everything. One person who helps him get through his life is his attractive babysitter, Bee, who he has a crush on. After one of his classmates tells him Bee is likely having sex with her boyfriend after he goes to sleep, Cole decides to sneak downstairs to see for himself. Only, instead of witnessing Bee having sex, he sees her and her friends commit murder as part of a Satanic ritual.
Who's in it? The movie stars Judah Lewis, Samara Weaving, Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell and Emily Alyn Lind.
Review: I've saw some advertisements for this film yesterday and, when it was time to settle down and watch a movie with my wife, I decided to give it a shot. I'm not normally a fan of horror/comedy films and wasn't really sure what to expect from this one when we started watching it. But, it turned out to be a fun movie to watch.
I think the thing that really stood out for me as I watched this movie were the well-thought-out characters. Cole (Lewis) has a lot of flaws but is genuinely likable, as is his neighbor/classmate, Melanie (Lind). Bee (Weaving), meanwhile, plays the sociopath role perfectly. One moment, she is the perfect babysitter and, the next, she is a cold-blooded killer. Then, as the movie progresses, she intertwines them in a way that makes it hard to tell which she is.
It wasn't just the main characters that were well-written either, the movie also had some interesting supporting characters as well. My personal favorite had to be the athletic Max (Amell), who was tasked with killing Cole but seemed to be torn between doing that and giving Cole some life advice and even teaching him how to stand up to his tormentors.
One of my biggest pet peeves about movies in the horror/comedy genre is most will focus too much on the comedy and not enough on the horror part of it. That was not the case with this film. There are plenty of funny scenes, including the ones involving Max. But, there were also plenty of times when the movie had me on the edge of my seat because I didn't know if/when Bee would manage to sneak up on him.
Plus, unlike many movies in this genre, there was no gratuitous nudity/sex. The steamiest thing in the film was that PG-13 spin-the-bottle game and I honestly think that was all the movie really needed.
I think the only thing I found I didn't like about this movie was Cole's age. Considering his dad (Ken Marino) was attempting to give him driving lessons, I suspect the writers originally intended him to be 3-4 years older and I think the movie might have been a little better had that been the case.
A perfect example of why is the way people think he's weird because he has a babysitter. I honestly don't know many parents who would be comfortable leaving their 12-year-old overnight without someone watching them and really didn't find his having a babysitter all that odd as a result of that. Had he been 16 instead of 12, then the weirdness over him having a babysitter would have been more believable.
Final Opinion: I would have liked to have seen the protagonist be a little older. But, overall, I thought this was a good film that was much more fun to watch than I was expecting. It's worth taking the time to watch it if you haven't seen it.
My Grade: B
Who's in it? The movie stars Judah Lewis, Samara Weaving, Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell and Emily Alyn Lind.
Review: I've saw some advertisements for this film yesterday and, when it was time to settle down and watch a movie with my wife, I decided to give it a shot. I'm not normally a fan of horror/comedy films and wasn't really sure what to expect from this one when we started watching it. But, it turned out to be a fun movie to watch.
I think the thing that really stood out for me as I watched this movie were the well-thought-out characters. Cole (Lewis) has a lot of flaws but is genuinely likable, as is his neighbor/classmate, Melanie (Lind). Bee (Weaving), meanwhile, plays the sociopath role perfectly. One moment, she is the perfect babysitter and, the next, she is a cold-blooded killer. Then, as the movie progresses, she intertwines them in a way that makes it hard to tell which she is.
It wasn't just the main characters that were well-written either, the movie also had some interesting supporting characters as well. My personal favorite had to be the athletic Max (Amell), who was tasked with killing Cole but seemed to be torn between doing that and giving Cole some life advice and even teaching him how to stand up to his tormentors.
One of my biggest pet peeves about movies in the horror/comedy genre is most will focus too much on the comedy and not enough on the horror part of it. That was not the case with this film. There are plenty of funny scenes, including the ones involving Max. But, there were also plenty of times when the movie had me on the edge of my seat because I didn't know if/when Bee would manage to sneak up on him.
Plus, unlike many movies in this genre, there was no gratuitous nudity/sex. The steamiest thing in the film was that PG-13 spin-the-bottle game and I honestly think that was all the movie really needed.
I think the only thing I found I didn't like about this movie was Cole's age. Considering his dad (Ken Marino) was attempting to give him driving lessons, I suspect the writers originally intended him to be 3-4 years older and I think the movie might have been a little better had that been the case.
A perfect example of why is the way people think he's weird because he has a babysitter. I honestly don't know many parents who would be comfortable leaving their 12-year-old overnight without someone watching them and really didn't find his having a babysitter all that odd as a result of that. Had he been 16 instead of 12, then the weirdness over him having a babysitter would have been more believable.
Final Opinion: I would have liked to have seen the protagonist be a little older. But, overall, I thought this was a good film that was much more fun to watch than I was expecting. It's worth taking the time to watch it if you haven't seen it.
My Grade: B
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