Tonight I'm reviewing the comedy horror flick, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, the sequel to the 2017 film, The Babysitter. It's directed by McG, and stars Judah Lewis, Emily Aln Lind, Jenna Ortega, Bella Thorne, and among others.
It's been two years since Cole Johnson (Judah Lewis) survived the night his babysitter and her demonic cult of friends tried to kill him. Now, Cole is a junior in high school, is seeing a psychiatrist, and everyone except for Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) thinks of him as the boy who cried wolf as they disbelieve his story of the satanic cult. Seeking to have an escape in his life and trying to get with Melanie, he goes with her and her friends to a lake party on a boat, only to discover, in a twist of events, the same experience like last time with his babysitter. Cole must survive the night as he confronts some new and old faces along the way, including a new student in high school named Phoebe (Jenna Ortega).
Now, here's a little backstory. I really enjoyed the first movie from 2017. I thought it was a fun, 80s throwback type of film. The satanic cult premise really had me going and it had an Edgar Wright feel to it with its dialogue and the way the characters were in on the joke on things. Plus it had a great amount of gore and brutal stuff and the kid definitely knew how to outsmart the babysitter and company in different ways too and made it believable, while not taking it too serious.
With the sequel coming out this year, I didn't really pay much attention to it because I went in without watching much of the trailers, except maybe a snippet of it. I went into it open minded since I enjoyed the first. I can honestly say, I wasn't quite a fan of this one.
Pros:
Judah Lewis was great again as Cole. I think he's starting to be a talented young actor and he definitely shines again and brings energy and charm to his character from the first. I found his chemistry with Emily Aln Lind from the first one to be sweet and fun together, but I also found his chemistry with the new girl, Jenna Ortega to be genuine and amusing together, especially in the later half of the film. Her character, Phoebe was a great addition as well, especially when there's a backstory of hers that I thought worked well with tying things with the first movie. Speaking of the first movie, I do like how the film spends a little bit of time with small flashbacks with the cult's backstories and how they got into killing. I chuckled a few times throughout, but not nearly as much as the first one though. Plus, there's a great cameo toward the end that I thought worked really well.
The 80s throwback is fun in certain portions again, like how they use certain songs from the era, the references of movies and some directional choices that McG uses that makes it looks like it was shot in the 80s was cool and the movie does have a certain charm to it that made me smile, especially a fight scene that feels just like an arcade video game.
The gore was mixed for me. There are some great death scenes that go to the extreme like the first one did and can be believable and look pretty good, but then it goes downhill with some of them from how the CGI looks, which I'll get into later.
Cons:
Unfortunately, the movie bogs down with rehashing the first movie where Cole has to go through the exact same thing again with surviving from the cult members and it definitely becomes repetitive with the same familiar territory that hinders it from doing anything interesting. I found the friends of Melanie to be pretty annoying along with Bella Thorne's character who was always the one that stuck out in the first one as the worst and some of the lines that are given to the cult members felt pretty cheap, stale and cringe at times.
Another problem I have is the way the whole set feels very cheap from where it's located at the lake and it sticks out badly. The CGI didn't help either where there are a few death scenes that can be quite exaggerated, over the top and just becomes more cartoonish, especially a part where someone gets decapitated. Also, little tip: STOP USING CGI FIRE! It looks so awful on Syfy channel levels and not in a so bad its good way either.
The biggest problem I have is that the movie becomes way too full of itself with it's style that's trying to be like Suicide Squad that uses title cards and has a pop bubble gum tone that feels quite overboard and way more out there and ridiculous compared to how charming the first film felt, even though it didn't take itself too seriously.
Overall, I wish this could've been a lot better because of how much I enjoyed the first film and 80s throwback type movies deserve much better.
Final Grade:
For those of you who have also seen The Babysitter: Killer Queen, let me in the comments below of what you thought of it, stay safe, and I'll see you on my next review.