The Babysitter

Timid Cole is infatuated with his babysitter Bee, who treats him like a person, gives him good advice, and makes their time together all around fun. When a neighbor girl wonders what she does at night, Cole decides to stay up past his bedtime to spy on her and is shocked when he witnesses a human sacrifice. Bee and her friends want him dead for interrupting their dark magic ritual. Can he get over his irrational fears long enough to stand up for himself and survive?

Cole is bullied everywhere he goes, avoids anything remotely fun, and generally fears everything. His babysitter Bee is everything he isn't: confident, cool, and fun. Their relationship is heaertwarming to watch as they recite films, act out movie fights, think of the best intergalactic teams, and dance together. She really seems like the perfect babysitter. He has a huge crush on her until he sees her double stab a guy in the head. What follows is a fun, campy horror film where the laws of physics don't matter. Geysers of blood come out of the victims' head and then somehow they're still alive. People shot with guns are launched across the room. A bugbomb and a big firework create a huge explosion that somehow leaves the majority of the house unscathed. Even though it's ridiculous, I have absolutely no problem with this because it's a stylistic choice that is consistent throughout the film.

The characters are all fairly flat and stereotypical, but the vast majority of them die in spectacular fashion. My favorite character besides Bee is Max. He is equally objectified as female characters often are and spends almost all of the film with no shirt on. I find this refreshing. He weirdly alternates between trying to kill Cole for fun and encouraging Cole like a big brother. The only reason he signed on for the human sacrifice was to kill people which he relishes with pleasure. On the other hand, he wants Cole to stand up for himself and not be such a doormat. It's an odd mix, but well played by Robbie Amell. The other characters didn't stand out as much. A comedic African American character is stereotypically killed quickly. A cheerleader only cares about her appearance. There isn't much new or interesting about the bunch beyond Bee and Max.

The Babysitter is a campy, fun movie that portrays the friendship between a boy and his babysitter well. The ending was kind of sad since he felt betrayed when she was clearly using him. There is something missing to this movie. Once in a while, graphics pop up like in Zombieland, but it's not throughout the film so it seems more like an afterthought. Some scenes went on for too long and it's a problem that none of the other characters were really memorable at all. Cole as a character wasn't likeable enough to hold the film for me. I didn't care about his survival and honestly liked Bee better than him. It's still a fun watch if you don't mind over the top kills.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins