Better Watch Out

Dir: Chris Peckover

2017

****

Better Watch Out starts off as a run-of-the-mill babysitter/home invader slasher movie, and looked as if it was given a Christmas theme because frankly Halloween already has got several. It’s high production visuals convinced you it would be entertaining enough but I can’t say I expected that much from it in terms of originality. Within half an hour I had guessed who the film’s villain would be, and then, moments later, the film’s villain reveled itself and I was correct. However, I was surprised by the early reveal – this film was not going to treat it’s viewers like idiots, so it turned the tables on what your typical watcher of such films would expect. It’s one of the most original Christmas horror films so far – not something that is hard to achieve admittedly – but this one is clever and it pulls off it’s twist perfectly. I take my hat off to it. The attention to detail is impressive, something I personally think is more important in the horror genre than any other. I’m here to be scared and shocked and you cannot do that by showing me something I have seen before. I feel that Better Watch Out caters beautifully for horror film, and Christmas horror film connoisseurs such as myself, quite wonderfully. I did see the twist coming but I was also suckered in by it. The big twist was only the beginning and the film built on it in gloriously disturbing fashion. What’s really great about it is that it convinces you that such a film could never venture into certain territories and then it does, and then some. The acting is of a high quality and the production values are high – certainly within the horror sub-genre. It is the only Christmas horror film I’ve seen where I really want there to be a sequel, although I fear it is a little too late. It starts on Christmas eve, seventeen-year-old Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is busy babysitting precocious twelve-year-old Luke Lerner (Levi Miller). Luke has romantic feelings for Ashley and unsuccessfully attempts to seduce her while watching a horror movie. Strange happenings outside put Ashley on edge, but it ultimately appears to be just Luke's best friend, Garrett (Ed Oxenbould), who has stopped by to hang out. Hearing a window break upstairs, the trio find a brick inscribed with "U leave and U die." Garrett panics and runs out the back door, but is apparently killed by an unknown shooter. Shocked, Ashley and Luke run upstairs and hide in the attic. Ashley almost breaks her neck from a fall but Luke catches her. After they run into Luke's room and hide in his closet, a masked intruder armed with a shotgun walks into the room. The rest of the film is series of torture, mystery and Home Alone gone bad. The tidy ending ties up the film quite beautifully while leaving a murky cloud of doom in the air. The three leads are brilliant and very convincing, and having Patrick Warburton and Virginia Madsen appear as the mostly absent parents is something of a treat. My only criticism about the twist of the story is that while the film disposes of all the usual chiches of the genre, it inadvertently trades them with others. However, I would still argue that this is one of the most original films in a very long time that covers several sub-genres, including Christmas Horror, Babysitting Horror, Home Invasion Horror, split-personality Horror and psychological horror in general. It is masterful in suspense, mystery and terror and it will scare you with what you see and don’t see. The idea will also stay with you and haunt, long after the film is over. Gore fans will love it and thriller lovers who don’t generally do horror will also dig it. It might be the first time I say that it is a Christmas horror I could watch again. Written by both director Chris Peckover and Zack Kahn, based on the story written by Kahn, Better Watch Out is a superior entry to the Christmas horror sub-genre and every bit as clever as it tries to be. Yeah, you know what, thinking about it more, I really do want a sequel, maybe even a series.