Directed by McG of “Charlie’s Angels” and “Terminator Salvation”, “The Babysitter” revolves around a 12 year old boy named Cole (Judah Lewis) who is left alone for the weekend with his babysitter while his parents are away. (Screenshot courtesy of Teaser Trailer’s Twitter)
“The Babysitter” isn’t the first film to make fun of scary movies, and it certainly won’t be the last. Like many of these satires, it has all of the ingredients to make a good film, but ends up falling short. There’s a hot girl, a satanic cult, blood, sacrifice and several heavy make-out scenes. It’s certainly not a movie for the faint of heart or anyone looking for a film with a real plot or substance.
Directed by McG of “Charlie’s Angels” and “Terminator Salvation”, the film revolves around a 12 year old boy named Cole (Judah Lewis) who is left alone for the weekend with his babysitter while his parents are away. Cole is timid, nerdy and not very popular in school. He is bullied pretty often, and his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving) always comes to his rescue. Bee is older, blonde, very pretty and effortlessly cool. She is also absolutely insane, but we’ll get to that later. Cole and Bee (seem to) have a great relationship, full of fun and laughs. He clearly has a big crush on her, and they really click.
Cole decides to stay awake after being put to bed on their first night together, and ends up finding Bee in the middle of some kind of sacrificial cult gathering with her friends played by Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell, King Bach and Hana Mae Lee. He realizes they are about to kill him next and tries to escape, but since there is another hour of the movie he unfortunately fails and is caught.
The rest of the film is literally just a mix of Cole being chased and everyone dieing. I actually am almost positive that you cannot get through more than five minutes of this movie without someone getting shot, stabbed or killed in some kind of extremely ridiculous fashion. I’m not usually phased by blood or gore, but this movie was a bit much. There honestly might have been more murdering going on than actual dialogue.
The best parts of the movie are definitely the beginning and end, in the beginning as we see the relationship between Cole and Bee and at the end once all the bad guys have died and Cole is made the hero. The middle is too dramatic and not funny enough. There definitely are some funny moments, but most of the time it just seems forced or dull.
The only part of the movie that makes it worthwhile is Cole’s story. At the start of the film he is shy, scared, and unable to stand up for himself. Throughout the movie his courage grows and he overcomes his fears. By the end, he has saved the day and really come out of his shell. There are some sweet moments between Cole and Bee as they hang out in the beginning of the film: dancing, quoting movies, swimming and more. But once the actual action of the movie begins, it becomes too ridiculous to the point where it is uninteresting. There is no longer a real plot or point, it’s just one big murder/chase scene. It’s clear that the movie was not meant to be taken very seriously. However, it’s so ridiculous that it almost misses the point of satire.
Released on Netflix just in time for Halloween, this is a good movie to watch if you’re not in the mood for an actual horror film or anything that needs your full attention. It seems as if it has the potential to become a cult classic, but I personally don’t think it’ll happen. There’s something throughout the film that is lacking, like this was the rough draft to a better, more interesting film.
Rating: 2/5
Melissa Scrivani is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at melissa.scrivani@uconn.edu.