And in the time since its release, there’ve been more films that echo the sentiments Aster had implemented in this film. Hereditary felt like a defining statement on where horror had been leading up to, with the previous films of the 2010s and their grief-based indie horror (a movement I’ve written about before). Fans appreciated the film’s commitment to subverting tired tropes of horror and its ability to instill genuine terror that wasn’t the result of a trite series of ineffective jump scares or unappealing CG creatures/demons/etc. It felt like a much-needed breath of fresh air for horror, as it seemed to reignite something. On June 8th, 2018, Ari Aster’s debut feature film, Hereditary hit theaters and, much like the head of a young girl in anaphylactic shock to a telephone pole, made a massive impact (sorry) with audiences and fans of the genre. I can’t help but feel like the shift has something to do with a film that came out five Junes ago. It geared toward a new direction in storytelling and filmmaking that set the tone for what was ahead. Nevertheless, looking back now – it feels as though horror was at the precipice of a massive shift. There’s a new addition to the Insidious franchise out now, and. Now, just as we’re barely halfway through 2023, horror fans are eager to witness the next chapter in The Exorcist franchise, spearheaded by the Pineapple Express folks. Films like Mandy and Luca Guadagino’s Suspiria were on the horizon. We’d finally gotten a sequel to The Strangers, though horror had been cycling through its latest in a seemingly long series of those Insidious flicks. Horror fans were eager to witness the next chapter in the beloved Halloween saga, spearheaded by the Pineapple Express folks. The world was certainly in a much different place. If anything, it’s a good primer for the far superior Better Watch Out, out now through Well Go USA.Ģ018 honestly feels like a whole lifetime ago. Taking that one step further, removing everyone but the babysitter and child would have made for a way more entertaining movie.Īs confused and sloppy as The Babysitter is, at least it’s astonishingly bloody. In fact, you could completely remove the cult/satanic subplot from the film and nothing would change. The Babysitter also fails to deliver on its promise: the babysitter is somehow in possession of the book of the devil and it’s never used. McG comes from a music video background and that’s exactly what is on the screen – everything looks stage-y, with the empty streets lit up like a studio backlot where they would film “Desperate Housewives”. She’s transcendent and could carry any film on her shoulders…only McG instead opts to turn the camera towards her unbearable knucklehead “Scooby-Doo” friends who bloat the second half of the film with a tiresome game of cat-and-mouse that’s dreadfully boring.Įven worse, The Babysitter looks like shit. Speaking of, Weaving’s performance dominates the first half of the film (she also steals the show in Joe Lynch’s Mayhem). It’s a bummer, too, because the chemistry between Lewis and Weaving in the first half of the film is dynamite. Always trying too hard to be hip and cool (boasting a ridiculous soundtrack that would make a ’90s horror film jealous), McG turns Brian Duffield‘s Blacklist screenplay into a bad dad joke (with handjobs and all) that’s in the middle of a midlife crisis. This on-the-nose coming-of-age slasher is a buffet of gore that’s plagued by an inconsistent tone. Now he must survive a night full of first kisses, first broken hearts, and first encounters with homicidal maniacs (played by Bella Thorne, Andrew Bachelor, Robbie Amell, and Hana Mae Lee). One evening while Bee is babysitting, Cole witnesses the unthinkable. She’s cool and awesome in all the ways Cole is not. Originally a New Line Cinema production, The Babysitter follows Cole ( Judah Lewis), who is madly in love with his babysitter Bee ( Samara Weaving). Netflix has given you two options this past Friday the 13th, and your best bet is to watch David Fincher’s incredible “Mindhunter” series over McG‘s absurd slasher The Babysitter.
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