Rating: 7/10
It feels like there is a piece of happiness for everyone when it comes to Netflix. The online streaming giant is now more focused on serving the horror fans by exploring the countless genres and sub-genres of horror to its root, especially in The Babysitter.
In the early September, we were given the Little Evil, a story which was loosely adapted by The Omen, a story about a child being an antichrist with a mix of comedy. It turned out well, getting a solid approval rating and was quite a success despite its brave attempt.
The Babysitter borrowed the same element of that Satan-worshipping group of people and its generic comedic materials and ventured into another terrory of babysitters, aka teenagers. The storyline itself was wry, tackling the story of dumb teens being in a cult of antichrist with an allegedly original book which is the equivalent of Satan's bible. If you're questioning the originality of the book held by Bee (Samara Weaving) or how and where she get the book is a quick indicator that this movie is not for you.
With almost the entirety of the plot was shown in the trailers, The Babysitter is not here to offer you an element of surprise but instead asking you to sit back, relax and enjoy the absurdities. These are the people that the director McG is targeting, those who enjoyed the premise that was portrayed countlessly back in the 80s, but wanted a fresh breath of the now-dead subgenre. And netflix didn't hold back.
The best thing about Netflix, which was also the horror of parents all over the world, is its uncensored contents, allowing for more exploration to the uncomfortable age gap between the two main characters; Bee and the awkward kid, Cole (Judah Lewis). The relationship between these two was strong, and Bee was portrayed as the daring yet dorky babysitter, unlike those normally portrayed in the movies. Their friendship was real, too real actually that it became the main focus of the movie.
However, as Cole is exploring puberty, he started exploring "that" side of his mind, silently lingering over his babysitter. This was not really explored in other movies with the same premise, as most did not dare to deal with the risk of being somewhat pervy instead of humorous.
Despite its sexual tendencies, we were given an almost special bond between these two, and we could not help but to sympathize over Cole's disappointment after finding out his best friend, a babysitter which he was too old to have one, was only nice to him to use him for a satanic blood-sacrifice. However, The Babysitter delivers. Pushing aside the absurdities or the extremely good-looking teens and focusing more on the heart of the film, you'll get a reasonable coming-of-age movie about a nerd claiming his own, brave life.
If you like this, try: When a Stranger Calls was quite entertaining although in this case, the babysitter was hunted by a serial killer. Or the underrated The Final Girls for the same amount of campiness.
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