The Babysitter
Director: McG
Writer: Brian Duffield
Cast: Judah Lewis, Samara Weaving, Robbie Amell, Hana Mae Lee, Bella Thorne, Emily Alyn Lind, Andrew Bachelor, Doug Haley, Leslie Bibb, Ken Marino
Seen on: 11.10.2022

Content Note: sexism/misogyny

Plot:
Cole (Judah Lewis) is not exactly a popular guy, and that isn’t helped by the fact that he still has a babysitter when his parents (Leslie Bibb, Ken Marino) go out. But then again, his babysitter is Bee (Samara Weaving) and she is basically perfect: gorgeous, fun and confident in Cole’s awesomeness. Or at least that’s what Cole thinks until he stays up past his bedtime to see what Bee gets up to without him. Unfortunately, it’s satanism and Cole finds himself in terrible danger.

The Babysitter is mostly fun, despite some rather sexist elements. If you’re looking for a horror comedy, it’s not among the best, but you can definitely do a lot worse.

That I saw Babysitter and The Babysitter within a couple of days was more a coincidence than anything else. Those two films don’t really have much to do with each other, but it is interesting to note that both feature a blond babysitter who is the object of male projections (the latter isn’t that aware of it as the former), and who is introduced by the film with a Peaches song (in this film, it wasn’t Fuck the Pain Away but Boys Wanna Be Her). But that’s just a sidenote.

The Babysitter is pretty much what you expect it to be. Unfortunately that includes all the standard sexisms that seem to come with the genre. Not only do we have the stupid cheerleader, but with Bee herself, the film seems to state that a woman who is this attractive has to be evil (arguably, there are the seeds of incel rhetoric here). And finally, Cole gets his own girl reward after he faces Bee and her friends.

That being said, the film is entertaining enough, mostly thanks to Samara Weaving who really is charming and wonderful and basically perfect. Bee keeps the audience’s interest much more than Cole ever can. The film is fast-paced and has some very fun gore moments, so it never gets boring.

Ultimately though it didn’t quite win me over and I’m still unsure whether I want to watch the sequel. I probably will at some point, but I’m not rushing to do it.

Summarizing: probably better than average but not much.