Review of The Babysitter

The Babysitter (I) (2017)
8/10
Hillariously Cheesy Slasher Comedy
14 October 2017
This is exactly what a good Halloween prank should look like. A little bit of gore, a little bit of T&A, outrageously stereotypical high school kids, and nothing in the way of a plot to worry about.

That's not to say it's not extremely successful at what it aspires to: good, silly fun for Halloween.

Completely self-aware of all the slasher films it mimics, and more than able to mine the comedy in those memes, this film is just a hoot. Not anywhere near as serious as the Scream franchise tries to be with the horror/slasher genre, this film takes the opposite tact: remember that these films are for fun and a bit of escapism.

A soft PG-13 would be the MPAA rating for this if it wasn't Netflix, and it's appropriate for your tweens. But if you're in your 30s or 40s, it's gonna be a lot more enjoyable, since you know and recognize all the tropes at play, but know that the filmmakers know and are just letting you have fun watching them play out.

I hope the three leads get more good work out of this, because they all do a fabulous job with the material - there's not a lot to work with, but each of the three (the babysitter, boy kid, and his bestie girl) give you a good show and don't fall into the trap that this film could easily have done: there's not a scenery chewer among them, and they all do a great job of keeping their eye on the prize: a silly, fun, bit nostalgic, Halloween slasher.
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