It's that special time of year again. The Christmas season is officially upon us, and to celebrate I'll be reviewing a different kind of Christmas film.
In Better Watch Out, Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is moving to Pittsburg. Before she leaves, she takes one last babysitting job: babysitting her regular charge, 12 yr old Luke (Levi Miller), who has been harboring a crush on her. He hopes that tonight will be the night where he might finally get to kiss her. His hopes are dashed when his best friend Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) crashes the night. Things get even worse when a masked stranger breaks into the house with the intent to kill all inside. It's up to Ashley to protect Luke and Garrett in what winds up being one holy hell of a Christmas Eve.
That's the basic plot of Better Watch Out. Needless to say, there is an obvious twist hiding in there somewhere. Luckily, the film doesn't waste our time as it only takes until the end of the first act to reveal what is really going on. In order to better review this flick, I'm going to have to spoil what the twist is. For those who don't want anything spoiled, stop reading here. Better Watch Out is very fun, and definitely worth a watch...so go watch it. Now, onto spoilers.
The twist ends up being that the break in is just a scheme by Garrett and Luke to get Ashley to fall in love with and kiss (or maybe even fuck) Luke. The first act is admittedly pretty weak, generic, and dumb. Everything that comes after though is tons of demented, insane, sick fun. Once Ashley discovers the truth she attempts to alert Luke's parents only to be knocked out and tied up by him. It's quickly revealed that Luke is actually a genuine psychopath, and that's when the real fun begins.
The actors all do pretty fine jobs. Olivia DeJonge is quite impressive as damsel-in-distress (and then some) Ashley, and Garrett is likeable as Luke's sidekick that grows more and more reluctant to go along with Luke's scheme as the night wears on. Both DeJonge and Oxenbould starred together in The Visit as brother and sister. They don't really share any chemistry here though. When viewed from Ashley's POV, this film is a tragic tale of an innocent girl surrounded by toxic males (quite literally).
The real star of the show is Levi Miller as Luke. He easily steals every scene he's in (which is most of the film). He's a lot of fun (and absolutely fantastic and awesome) as the young, hormonal psychopath. You can tell Miller is relishing the chance to play against type. He dances around the house, genuinely enjoying every amount of harm he inflicts upon the inhabitants within. I was shocked to find I was on his side for the whole film. Yes, he's clearly a sick, twisted dude but dammit I couldn't help but love the shit out of him. Miller is definitely one to keep an eye on, as he just may be a real up-and-comer. He previously starred in Pan (as the titular character, where he failed to impress), and is playing one of the man characters in the upcoming adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time.
I had way more fun with Better Watch Out than I expected to. For the first act, I couldn't help but be reminded of The Babysitter (which debuted on Netflix in October) but by the time the end rolled around I was shocked to find that Better Watch Out was a genuinely demented, sick, twisted, fun ride that I would gladly watch again with friends. It's definitely one of the best Christmas films you can see.
4 STARS
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