Violent Netflix Horror Comedy That Will Make You Think Twice About Hiring A Babysitter
Coming-of-age stories often involve characters overcoming their fears, learning a thing or two about themselves and the world they live in, and getting ready to embark on their next adventure after defying all odds and proving their worth. The Babysitter is one such coming-of-age story, but its source of conflict comes in the form of a satanic cult.
Using dark humor and an excessive amount of violence to get its point across, The Babysitter is a hilarious slasher that had me sleeping on the couch because I was laughing so hard that I woke my family up on several occasions.
The Babysitter On Netflix
The Babysitter, like most slashers, boasts a simple premise. But execution is everything, and this Netflix original is somehow elevated by its limitations. You go into a film like this knowing all of its beats. But you don’t care because knowing its narrative mechanics like the back of your hand allows you to sit back and enjoy the bloodbath that’s about to happen. In other words, this movie works so well because of how derivative it is.
Centering on a timid 12-year-old boy named Cole (Judah Lewis), The Babysitter sets up its premise. Cole is extremely sheltered to the point of being bullied for being a wussy with a capital ‘P’ (read between the lines).
A Night Gone Wrong
Despite the schoolyard scuffles, Cole takes solace in the fact that his babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving), is extremely attractive and always has his back.
When Cole’s parents decide to go out of town for the evening, Bee and Cole have the house to themselves and all is well with the world until The Babysitter approaches its second act.
Thinking Cole is asleep after offering him liquor (he didn’t drink it), Bee invites her friends over to party.
Meanwhile, Cole, who is wide awake upstairs, attempts to spy on Bee after being encouraged by Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind), his neighbor who secretly has a crush on him, to see what kind of shenanigans Bee’s getting into.
Turning Into A Horror Movie
The Babysitter kicks things into high gear when Cole witnesses Bee and her friends playing a game of spin the bottle with a truth or dare twist in the living room.
The game ends with Bee stabbing her friend Samuel in the head while her other friends, Max (Robbie Amell), John (Andrew Bachelor), Allison (Bella Thorne), and Sonya (Hana Mae Lee), collect his blood in a ceremonial goblet.
Cole runs back into his room and pretends to be asleep, but only before Bee sneaks into his room and takes a sample of his blood as well.
A Satanic Cult
Now aware that Bee is the leader of a satanic cult, Cole realizes that he’s outnumbered by her equally insane friends. A healthy amount of humor in The Babysitter comes from Bee’s friends because they’re so typecast and stereotypical.
For example, Allison is a cheerleader who hopes that the footage of Samuel getting murdered will go viral because it will mark the first time, according to her, that “hot people” were involved in a human sacrifice.
Body Count Stacks Up
As Cole gathers his senses and comes up with an action plan in The Babysitter, the whole plot goes into Home Alone territory with its daring escape plans and elaborate booby traps.
Despite being a straight-to-streaming movie with a premise that’s far from original, the production values are impressive and the gore is top-notch.
However, as the body count stacks up, The Babysitter never loses sight of its sick sense of humor, making it a total party movie with a solid laugh-per-minute ratio.
Streaming The Babysitter On Netflix
REVIEW SCORE
The Babysitter is one of those movies that I simply threw on because I was bored and it was late. I wanted to watch a horror movie, but not something that was going to prevent me from sleeping after watching it. This movie is campy, violent, hilarious, and twisted, and I strongly recommend that you queue it up on Netflix the next time you need some black comedy in your life.
