The Babysitter: Killer Queen

 "The Babysitter: Killer Queen" (2020, McG, Netflix, Wonderland Sound & Vision, Boies/Schiller Film Group) is the sequel to 2017's "The Babysitter".

Judah Lewis reprises his role as Cole, now 2 years older and a bit of a social pariah, having shared his story of the eventful night with Bee (Samara Weaving) and her murderous pals with friends and family... No one believes him, of course. 

An unusual new girl called Phoebe (Jenna Ortega) joins the school who catches Cole's eye, but she seems to have her own problems.

On learning that he is being enrolled in a special school by his parents, Cole runs off with his friend Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) and her pals for a party. Everything seems to be going as awkwardly as he anticipated until... tables turn and, with the help of Phoebe, he finds himself once again pitted against the odds. 

A fun follow up to the original that continues in a similar style with tongue-in-cheek tropes and a weirdly paced sense of humour. The action remains fun, gory and cartoonish and there are many familiar faces from the first film. However, liking the first film may not necessarily mean this one will tick your boxes; taking the plot out of one location does widen the scope of the story, but does in some respects make it feel a little more disjointed and less neat than the original film.

[Image: Netflix, et al]

Hani

The Babysitter

"The Babysitter" (2017, McG, Netflix) is a comedy horror with plenty of gore.


Cole (Judah Lewis) is a 12 year old kid who gets bullied a lot at school. His only solace is that his babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving), is super hot and pretty cool. And she also plays down the part where she's his babysitter. When his parents go on a weekend away, Cole creeps out of bed to spy on Bee and her friends having a party in the living room, but he soon discovers that the teens are up to something much worse than drinking alcohol.... human sacrifice. Can Cole get over his crippling fear of, well, everything in time to save himself? And will he finally get his first ever kiss? Only time will tell in this gory flick.


While it's far from a genre-defining, ground breaking innovation, the film delivers exactly what it needs to; humour, gore and a host of disposable characters who get to die in a bunch of gruesome ways. Our collection of would-be Satan worshippers cover all the usual stereotypical bases (eg. jock, cheerleader, etc...). Only Bee and Cole truly stand out as characters who break stereotype.


The film spends a good while setting up the relationship between Bee and Cole. He fancies her. He's awkward. She's easy going and a little wild. Cole tells Bee all of his secrets, while unbeknownst to him, she uses this against him any way that she can.


When the murder and mayhem begin the film does not scrimp on the gore and we see a lot of innovative kill scenes which expertly mix humour and ick-factor without becoming too silly.
Gore aside, the film also makes use of interesting camera perspective, a lot of 80s-feeling tropes (despite being based in present day) and just enough character depth to instil a sense of betrayal from Bee when we find out her intentions.


All in all, I found "The Babysitter" to be a fun and worthwhile watch which I've even revisited on occasion.

[Image: Netflix]

Hani

Emilie

"Emilie" (2016, Michael Thelin, Uncorked Productions) is an unnerving home invasion thriller preying on the fears of a lot of parents leaving their kids alone with someone new.

When their usual babysitter is unavailable on the eve of their anniversary dinner, the Thompson's arrange for a new babysitter called Anna to take care of their three children. When Anna shows up she seems perfect, but it isn't long before the kids come to realise that Anna is not who she says she is....

A well executed film that really builds some tension as it gets going. "Anna" (Sarah Bolger) is revealed to be a twisted young woman called Emilie who is keen to push the kids to dangerous levels. The film is difficult to watch, particularly as it involves the endangerment of the kids. The kids themselves give an excellent and believable performance.

While the film isn't completely without flaws, the pacing for instance can be a little patchy, it does enjoy an excellent shocking creep factor and pushes the boundaries well.

[Image: Uncorked Productions]

Hani