These days, it’s all the rage for studios to release horror spins on familiar movie concepts, like Happy Death Day being a slasher send-up of Groundhog Day and Freaky being a spooky version of Freaky Friday. These movies can be fun, but they are at their best when they manage to add something new to the formula they are copying.
Perhaps the best example of this is Better Watch Out, a horror film that starts out like Home Alone before going off the rails in the most entertaining way.
Stuck On the Naughty List
The premise of Better Watch Out is that during the holidays, a teenage babysitter is watching a 12-year-old boy who has a major crush on her. She thinks the worst she has to deal with is rampant preadolescent hormones, but things get more dangerous when their home is seemingly attacked by an intruder. Before the night is over, though, this plucky babysitter will discover that the real threat is much closer to home than she ever could have imagined.
The cast of Better Watch Out includes some bigger names for the adult performers, including Patrick Warburton (best known for The Emperor’s New Groove) and Virginia Madsen (best known for Sideways) as two parents trusting their kiddo to a babysitter. The kid in question is played by Levi Miller (best known for Pan), while that character’s boyish bestie is played by Ed Oxenbould (best known for The Visit). The standout performer here is Olivia DeJonge (also best known for The Visit), who gives her babysitter character all the emotional vulnerability of a young teen and all the steel of a final girl who will stop at nothing to survive.
Unknown Film Dazzles Critics
Better Watch Out only had a brief theatrical run in Australia, so it didn’t make a huge wave with general audiences. But critics loved it: on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a rating of 89 percent, with critics praising the solid performances from all of the child actors involved. They also commended it for being a frightening film that instantly established itself as a bloody slice of must-see holiday horror (just call it an annual gift under the tree for yourself).
Compared to, say, the elevated horror films of A24, Better Watch Out didn’t get much in the way of awards buzz. However, it did earn a Saturn Award nomination for Best Horror Film. Considering that the Saturns are one of the most prestigious awards focused on sci-fi, fantasy, and horror and how much competition it faced in 2017 (the same year that Get Out, It, The Babysitter, Happy Death Day, Alien: Covenant, and Anna and the Apocalypse came out), it was impressive that this plucky holiday horror was in consideration for Saturn’s Best Horror Film award.
Slay Bells Are Ringing
When I first checked out Better Watch Out, I had never heard of it before; truth be told, it was the holidays, and I just wanted some appropriately Christmas-themed horror to go along with my eggnog. I quickly became engrossed in the plot thanks to the acting chops of the young performers, and the movie managed to do something I didn’t think possible: it subverted my expectations in the best possible way. I thought I was going to watch a horror version of Home Alone, and I ended up watching something more akin to a demented Kidz Bop version of Herectic.
To tell you any more would give spoilers that might ruin your enjoyment of the film. Just trust me when I say that you never know where this home invasion thriller is going to go next, and you never know how its colorful cast of characters will react to the next bonkers plot point. It’s the kind of movie that will keep you guessing until the very end, and that will definitely take multiple viewings to fully appreciate.
Will you agree that Better Watch Out is the perfect holiday horror movie, or will you want to turn it off and just go watch Home Alone instead? You won’t know until you load up on eggnog and check out this terrifying thriller for yourself. Afterward, you may never look at babysitters or Christmas the same way, ever again.
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