‘Could this night get any more erotic?’
I loved McG’s bonkers witchcraft thriller The Babysitter way more than I was expecting to. Despite misgivings about McG as a director and Judah Lewis as the star of the show, that movie worked because it was so damn fun. It feels unlikely that someone who self identifies as ‘McG’ could strike gold again, but this guy really is an alchemist because I loved the sequel just as much as the original…
Cole (Lewis) is back and he’s dorkier than ever. Not content with being weird and having a terrible haircut, he now has everyone thinking he is crazy following the events of the first film. Luckily, Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind), his only confidante, still has his back. Right? RIGHT? Maybe not. What Melanie does do is save Cole from being shipped away to a psychiatric facility be whisking him off to the lakes instead. But is she too good to be true? And what’s the deal with the weird new girl Phoebe (Jenna Ortega)?
So, how to top a film that spent 80 minutes blasting through various incredible death scenes? You just do it all again but louder. Killer Queen takes everything that was great about the original; the humour, the self-referential movie references, the ultra violence, and smashes it up to 11. There wasn’t a single moment throughout this movie that I didn’t have a smile on my face. Lind does a great job in taking over from Samara Weaving as (**spoiler**) the new big bad, Lewis is not quite so annoying now he’s grown up a bit and Ortega does a great job as the newcomer to what will hopefully become a long and fruitful franchise. I could watch sequels to this movie forever. Throw in some fine work from veteran comic actors Ken Marino and Leslie Bibb and you have something really special. Not to mention another fantastic shirtless turn from Robbie Amell as Max who almost manages to steal the whole damn movie from under the rest of the talented cast.
This won’t be for everyone. Some people hate fun, for example. But for those of us willing to let go and just gasp at the audacity of it all, the Babysitter movies are pound for pound the most enjoyable horror movie franchise films out there right now (sorry, Happy Death Day).