#PopCultureResolution - Better Watch Out

 

Better Watch Out

Director: Chris Peckover

Length:  89 minutes

Cast: Levi Miller, Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould

Release Date: October 6, 2017

Synopsis: Ashley travels to the suburban home of the Lerners to baby-sit their 12-year-old son Luke at Christmastime. She must soon defend herself and the young boy when unwelcome intruders announce their arrival.

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My final #PopCultureResolution movie pick for 2021 was Better Watch Out. A holiday horror that delivers some surprises but decidedly not a lot of holiday cheer (which is probably not surprising).

This movie is a entirely ridiculous but entertaining. I enjoyed the setting and the set up. Everyone loves a good 'the call is coming from inside the house/babysitter' horror film and this takes that premise and plays with it.

The tone of the movie is definitely horror comedy with everything ramped up to the highest degree. If this tone doesn't resonate with you it will not be an enjoyable watching experience. It is more on the campy side of horror movies and it uses that in almost every element of the plot.

I appreciated the direction this story went in as it made for a more interesting plot but I did end up wishing the 'why' would have been different. It is something that has been done before and something that just did not sit right with me. 

Spoilers ahead....

The entire thing is masterminded by the kid she is babysitting who has a crush on her and hates the guys she has dated/guy she is dating. He claims it was all a set up to make a move on her when she got scared BUT this kid also happens to be a budding psychopath. Things get very bad, very quickly as you can imagine. The fact that it is, on the surface at least, a guy not listening to a girl and getting upset because she rejects him wasn't that interesting to me - even if the twist of it being the kid was kind of amazing. The other lens to view this through is the kid would have hurt someone eventually and this was just his excuse to do it. While true, I still don't like that the whole 'if I can't have you nobody can' was what they used.

The acting is pretty strong and actually what held the movie together for me. The acting made this movie more watchable. It is definitely an entertaining watch even if I had some things that didn't quite work for me.

This is a dark, but funny, horror flick that wasn't as scary as it was tense. It would be good for those who are counting down the days until Halloween and need their horror fix even during the holiday season.