Horror Movie Review: The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020)

In 2017 Netflix released a homage to 80’s horror called The Babysitter and audiences seemed to really enjoy the campy, over-the-top silliness of the flick. Although we were less complimentary about it.

It saw the young boy Cole (Judah Lewis) have to fight off his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving) and her friends as they try to spill his blood for a Satanic ritual.

Directed and produced by McG, from a screenplay by McG, Dan Lagana, Brad Morris and Jimmy Warden. This sequel stars Judah Lewis, Emily Alyn Lind, Jenna Ortega, Robbie Amell, Andrew Bachelor, Leslie Bibb, Hana Mae Lee, Bella Thorne, Samara Weaving, and Ken Marino.

Set two years after the events of the first film, Cole (Lewis) is now in high school and is having a real problem fitting in. No-one believes his version of events aside from his best friend, Melanie (Lind) and he is tormented by just about everyone.

Unwilling to have fun, to take any chances or relax. It’s not until he finds out that his parents are to enrol him in a psychiatric school that he agrees to go to a lake party with Melanie and her friends.

She might have a new boyfriend but the chemistry between her and Cole is pretty obvious. The pair seem made for each other but the past is about to catch up with Cole. The ritual still needs to be completed and some old friends are about to crash the party. Although it’s not just old enemies that Cole will have to fight off this time.

Holy hell…is this a bad movie.

The Babysitter: Killer Queen is a mess that has no direction beyond; do the same things as before, yet worse. The plot is nonsense, the effects are disappointing, the jokes are terrible, and it constantly jams in outdated references. Ones that make it seem like it was made a decade ago, if not longer.

Revisiting this story wasn’t a terrible idea, it could have worked yet the direction it goes in is so poorly plotted out. Almost immediately that sinking feeling begins as Cole’s uber-nerdiness is splayed for all to see. Sure, he was a geek in the first film, but this takes it up a notch made all the worst by what he chooses to wear to school. Maybe if you’re trying to fit in Cole, don’t dress like Doctor Who.

This builds and builds as unfunny after unfunny joke is spat about at an alarming level until we finally get to some blood. Which comes about in a momentarily surprising way until you start to question the logic and believability of the whole situation.

Bringing the cast from the first back in so they can repeat many of the same jokes as last time is infuriating. Yet, they all have way more personality then the new set even if the likes of Jenna Ortega tries with her walking cliché that is Phoebe.

It’s not a good comedy, it’s not a good horror and it’s a frankly awful horror comedy. Yet, the most insulting thing is how it ends. Turning a character who was evil through and through into a beacon of light. Thus actually damaging the impact of one of the first film’s best sequences.

This is not a film where you can say, switch off your brain and just enjoy it. Simply because it’s so stupid it’s impossible to not snap back in and wonder what the hell is going on?