Eddie here. Tonight I'm reviewing the 2017 Christmas Horror / Thriller, Better Watch Out, directed by Chris Peckover and stars Olivia Dejonge, Levi Miller, Dacre Montgomery, Patrick Warburton , and Virginia Madsen. Ashley (Olivia Dejonge) travels to the suburbian home of the Lerner's to babysit their 12-year -old son Luke (Levi Miller) on Christmas Eve. She must soon defend herself and the young boy when unwelcome intruders break into the home. Surprisingly, the film takes a major twist I didn't see coming at all. I'm actually really impressed on how good this movie was despite it being very limited and hidden from the average movie watcher like me. Forget what you saw on the trailers because this film takes a 180 turn I didn't see coming and it did it well at that. I'm not going to be able to talk too much about my pros and cons because this movie is one of those films that almost everything in it deals with twists and turns that might spoil the movie for you. First I gotta give credit in how they marketed the trailer. This film's trailer goes another totally different direction I didn't see coming, but I assure you the direction they went with might impress you as it did me. The cast of this film I thought did a great job, especially the little boy played by Levi Miller who I thought did a phenomenal job as a caring, but psychotic change to him that made me think of Mikey and Junior from Problem Child mixed with a young Norman Bates. This film is best described as a combination of The Babysitter meets Mikey with a strong Christmas feel to the film which I absolutely enjoyed. I loved the Christmas themes, some from the Christmas movie classics like Home Alone and the Christmas music as the movie plays out. The movie is bloody, but not as gory as the 2017 film The Babysitter, which isn't a problem at all. With the film being a low-budget limited release, I was impressed with the writing and theatrical feel to the film. The story kept me invested and I wanted to see more. As for my cons, I actually don't have much flaws to this film other than maybe we could have seen more to the story and have had more blood even though the blood that they show was really good. I really don't have much flaws to this film. It ends kind of on an ambiguous note which I thought worked really well. It's hard for me to go into any more details without spoiling this film, but I do recommend it. I thought this film was really solid and I see it easily being in my Top 5 Best Christmas Slasher films I've ever seen; possibly Top 3. Had this film not came out in a year with so many great films, it could have maybe made my Top 10 of 2017 list possibly, but unfortunately it won't be because I have seen so many great films in 2017. Although, I will be adding this to my must-watch of the Christmas Holidays in the future. I'm going to give Better Watch Out a 9 /10. What were your thoughts on this film? Leave me a comment below and I'll see you in my next review.
- Eddie Williams