What I Watched In November

NetFlix’s THE BABYSITTER (2017) was a fun if slightly too silly horror film that had much to recommend it. The cast was likable and the script was clever enough to make its over-the-top splatter effects acceptable even when they became gratuitous. There was no real need for a sequel although the ending did present the possibility. The film did mark a major ‘first’ for me in that it represented the first time a film directed by McG didn’t make me gag. He has always seemed like the filmmaking equivalent of a radio shock jock or an aggressive stand comedian striving to scream the jokes at you in case they aren’t actually funny. THE BABYSITTER seems like the first time his ADD style had found a script that could overcome his inability to coherently tell a story without stumbling over his own ego.

Now we have THE BABYSITTER: KILLER QUEEN (2020) and, surprisingly, I enjoyed it about as much as the first one. McG is back in the director’s chair and proves that this burgeoning franchise is one he does not intend to screw up (sorry about that, Terminator). This film picks up a couple of years later with the surviving teenage boy having a hard time getting through high school. It seems that the body of the murderous Babysitter from the first film was never found so his story of a satanic blood cult is not believed. His doctors have him on a number of drugs to treat his ‘delusions’ and he has started to make his peace with the past when his current crush invites him out for a night in a secluded cabin. Cue the return of the blood cult and violent shenanigans are underway.

This sequel has the same strengths and weaknesses that the original had so you’ll know if you want to revisit this whacked-out world for more dumb fun. The worst crime the film wallows in is the stupid need to splash every possible cast member with blood at every possible opportunity. And it must always be splashed or squirted or spurted in the actor’s face because that is a visual that is never NOT funny, right? Yeah. So, there could have been a lot less of that and I’d like the film more - but it was still a pretty good time. I’ll be interested to see where they go with the inevitable third in the series.

THE LIST 

ANTRUM (2018) – 6 (interesting mockumentary about a deadly film) 

BAD DREAMS (1988) – 5 (flat tale of a cult survivor in therapy) 

BLACK BOX (2020) – 7 (solid tale of a man trying to recover his memories) 

DEAD & BURIED (1981) – 9 (rewatch on Blu) 

STAGE FRIGHT (2014) – 7 (odd combo of slasher and musical that worked for me) 

PATRICK STILL LIVES (1980) - 4 (outrageous, idiotic and near pornographic) 

DR. NO (19862) – 9 (rewatch on Blu) 

THE FALCON’S ADVENTURE (1946) – 6 (the last of the RKO series) 

PHANTOM LADY (1944) – 8 (excellent film noir) 

ABBOT & COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951) – 6 (rewatch) 

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) – 9 (rewatch on Blu) 

DREAM NO EVIL (1970) – 6 (fascinating low budget horror) 

THE GOLDEN ARROW (1962) – 6 

THE BLACK CASTLE (1952) - 7 

HOWL OF THE DEVIL (1988) – 7 (rewatch) 

THE NEW MUTANTS (2020) – 7 (well done mutant horror film) 

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (2013) – 7 

SON OF GODZILLA (1967) – 6 (rewatch on Blu) 

TOOLBOX MURDERS (2004) – 6 (much better than it should be) 

THE BABYSITTER: KILLER QUEEN (2020) – 7 (maybe too comedically gory but fun) 

CRUEL JAWS (1995) – 3 (Mattei remakes JAWS and it is terrible in the funniest ways) 

THE SMART BLONDE (1937) – 8 (rewatch of the first Torchy Blane film) 

THE LATE GEORGE APLEY (1947) – 8 (Ronald Coleman as a Boston stuffed-shirt in 1912) 

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: APOCALYPSE WAR (2020) – 8 (dark is right!) 

FLY-AWAY BABY (1937) – 7 (rewatch – Torchy Blane) 

SUPERMAN: RED SON (2020) – 8 (alternate history DC tale)