Day 14 on our cinematic crawl through creepy celluloid, and today’s entry is The Babysitter, a made for Netflix slasher film about what a young boy discovers about his caretaker. 12 year old Cole (Judah Lewis) is scared of many things and gets bullied by others at school.One thing that doesn’t scare him, however, is his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving). Bee is both beautiful and cool, and Cole has a crush on her. One night, he decides to fake going to sleep to spy on Bee and her friends. It’s then he discovers Bee is a devil worshipper, and once Cole is discovered he needs to try to survive, as Bee and her friends will kill to keep their secret.
The movie, directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels, Terminator Salvation), is a wild horror comedy that would feel right at home on a bill next to Wes Craven’s Scream. Beginning with a nicely gory sacrificial kill, the violence escalates with some cleverly staged dispatches as Cole fights off the group of devil worshippers. They are plenty of quips tossed about as well, making for a very entertaining mix of comedy and horror. The cast is all pretty good. Lewis is very believable as Cole, who wants to be braver for Bee. Emily Alyn Lind does a nice job as Cole’s friend Melanie, and Bee’s friends (Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell, Hana Mae Lee, and Andrew Bachelor) are all very good in the parts. Thorne is funny as cheerleader Allison, Lee plays things a bit twisted, and Bachelor is also quite funny as the unwilling recipient of plenty of blood in the face. Amell gets the most to do out of the friends, as he hunts Cole, all while taunting the boy and encouraging him at the same time. Weaving is great in the titular role as Bee, the cool girl with a very dark secret. She’s at once the type of babysitter most boys would want, and at the same time she plays a cold, calculating psychopath quite well. Most of the scares are the typical jump variety, and some pop up text on the screen provides some amusement. Watch through the first part of the credits for an additional scene. Now showing on Netflix, and if you’re a fan of slasher movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer you’ll probably want to check this out. 8/10 stars
