The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020)
Director(s): McG
Writer(s): Dan Lagana, Brad Morris, Jimmy Warden, McG
Starring: Samara Weaving, Judah Lewis, Jenna Ortega, Emily Alyn Lind
That’s right folks, after a whole article gushing at the newly crowned SCREAM QUEEN that is Samara Weaving in her stellar performance in The Babysitter (CLICK HERE), your humble FearTASTIC gate keeper shall keep the lovely vibes going in talking about its surprisingly fun sequel, The Babysitter: Killer Queen!
So let’s cut to when I first saw the trailer to this flick; the first reaction was…concern. Between the time of the first Babysitter and its sequel, the world started to take as much notice as I have of the lovely Samara Weaving and her popularity had since blossomed. Unfortunately, it seemed like the trailer was going to have less of its titular character, Bee, the chaotically beautiful psycho cult leader that stole our hearts played beautifully by Miss Weaving. It’s understandable and a tale as old as time where a breakout star no longer needs the franchises that started their careers so again, as I watched the trailer and noticed a lack of Samara Weaving a wave of concern washed over me.
The movie takes place two years after the fateful night of the first flick and our hero Cole (played again by Judah Lewis) is now in his awkward teen years still affected by having to slay (albeit accidentally for the most part) the murderous demon cult that was after him years ago. I think the character of Cole was exactly where I thought he would be as a teenager but I do believe he gave his character a sort of hipster style that made him really likable even though he still exhibited the norms of being an awkward teen. You can tell Cole has been through the grinder psychologically with most people assuming he’s nuts (including his parents). He’s still friends with his crush from the first flick, Melanie and pretty much made to look like a young Samara at this point which I believe was intentional. A new group of friends have been introduced to Cole’s life, begrudgingly for the most part since they’re mostly Melanie’s friends and a weekend away to party shall bring up some past demons for Cole and finds himself once again in a position where he has to fight to survive. There’s also the addition of a mysterious new student named Phoebe (played brilliantly by Jenna Ortega) that may be the key to surviving the a night filled with some old foes and some new demons.
As much as I loved Miss Weaving (and at this point, I think we can all agree I’m nuts for this lady), I was actually pleasantly surprised that I was fully invested in Cole within the first 10 minutes to the point where I wasn’t upset that I didn’t see Samara right away. Judah Lewis has a nervous charm to him that doesn’t get to the point of annoying (looking at you Michael Cera) and you know from the previous flick that the kid has some tricks under his sleeve since he was successful in stopping a demon cult last time. The new group of demon worshipping teens that invade Cole’s weekend are somewhat evolved from the first group of satirical cliche’ teen tropes form the first movie. One of the most entertaining features of the movie is seeing the two groups of cults interact with each other; classic vs modern teen cliches.
It was pretty clear within the first half hour that we weren’t getting as much of Samara Weaving as we’re used to but the flick does a great job building up the other characters to the point where you don’t mind that the character Bee takes a sideline while simultaneously making her involvement a huge part of the plot line. The Babysitter is definitely still the center of all the shenanigans happening to Cole this time around and even gives some more depth to the events of the first film, which unexpected but refreshing. Usually, when flicks try to explain the method of the madness for any of our macabre characters, it ends up less than stellar but I must say, the layers that they added for the intentions and reason for the Babysitter for getting the cult together in the first place was surprisingly…heartfelt. The movie did a great job of incorporating Bee without having to actually have her in the movie for long periods of time, which to me was quite impressive.
I would say that if you were to watch the movies back to back, it actually flows in a great pace because you have the initial flick that was a fun romp with great kills and the sequel has all those same elements but now adds a pinch of heart which wraps up the series quite nicely …unless Samara Weaving wants to do a third flick, then I’m ALL IN. I just hope we can fit this flick in the midst of our wedding plans (yes, even your FearTASTIC Vault Keeper has dreams beyond his vault LOL)!
Life is FAR more interesting when we take interest in things that scare us.