The Babysitter (2017)

 

The Babysitter is not an original movie. It doesn't break any new ground, or have any twists that will blow your mind. It is still a fun movie that seems to hearken back to an earlier age of both horror and comedy. In particular it reminded me of slasher films of the 80's, and comedy of the late 80's and early 90's. There's also a little bit of a Scott Pilgrim influence.

The story follows 12 year old Cole, who is afraid of everything. His parents are having some sort of problems, and are working on them by going away to hotels together on the weekends. Even though he is too old for one, they hire Bee to act as Cole's babysitter. Bee stands up for Cole against his bullies, loves old genre movies, and is super hot. Needless to say, Cole has a bit of a crush. Cole also has a friend named Melanie who lives across the street. Her parents are recently divorced, and her dad deals with it by getting a muscle car. Melanie tells Cole that she is sure his babysitter invites boys over to have sex in his house while he is sleeping. She challenges him to stay awake to catch her in the act. This is what leads to a terrifying night for Cole.

At first Cole thinks he has indeed caught Bee in some type of sex shenanigan, as she appears to be playing spin the bottle with a group of friends, leading her to kiss everyone in the group. Then when she gets to the new guy in the group, after kissing him she stabs him in the head with a pair of knives. It turns out that Bee and her friends, Sonya the goth girl, Max the psycho jock, Allison the self absorbed cheerleader, and John who would have been played by Damon Wayans twenty years ago, are part of a cult. They are trying to perform a blood ritual to get wishes granted.

The cult members need Cole's blood as part of the ritual, which they take with a syringe while he pretends to be asleep. Something alerts Bee that not everything is as it seems, and she catches Cole trying to sneak out of his window after he thinks the cult members have gone back downstairs. The cult now has to capture and silence Cole, who is a witness to their murder. The results are bloody and funny.

The movie is a real splatterfest, with blood spraying everywhere. There is a little bit of titillation with Bee in a bikini, a scorching girl on girl kiss, and a couple of other moments, but the movie does not indulge in the full on T&A of an 80's horror flick. There are a couple of times when captions pop up on the screen, commenting on the actions, like when Bee stabs the boy in the head and the screen shows Cole's reaction with the words What The Fuck popping up under him. Mostly the gore is used for comic effect, almost like in Evil Dead where there is so much blood flowing that it becomes ridiculous.

The movie was directed by McG, who will likely never be known as one of the greats, but his movies are usually fun. He did the Charlie's Angels movie, which is still one of my favorites. This movie comes across as a hybrid of The Burbs and Scary Movie, and it is obvious that the people who made it love movies, especially genre movies. There are references to movies peppered here and there. But mostly it's just a fun movie about a boy who learns that the one person he thought was on his side might be a monster, and learned not to be so scared of the world as a result.