Movie Review - The Babysitter: Killer Queen

McG's sequel to his hit film, The Babysitter (2017) is here, just in time for Halloween. It's unsure how much of a hit this film was, but the fact that Netflix green-lit this sequel is indication that it did reasonably well. One metric to prove how well it did is that currently McG's 2017 film stands as his directorial effort with the highest Rotten Tomatoes score. McG made a name for himself after directing Charlie's Angels (2000), which became a blockbuster success for him. His follow-up in that franchise failed to impress. His highest-earning film in the box office was Terminator Salvation (2009) and even that film wasn't well received and considered a disappointment. His 2017 film was a refreshing change for the mostly derided director. It's obvious that the hope here was for McG's follow-up film to do what James Cameron did for the Terminator franchise in its follow-up film. McG wanted this part 2 to be like Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). This film certainly makes references to that 1991 action flick.

Like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the plot of this film is essentially the same as the plot of the previous. Except, instead of jumping over a decade into the future, this sequel is only two years later from the previous. It's still the same plot where a boy is running for his life because a group of psychotic group of twenty-somethings want to kill him. Yet, it's a horror comedy, which leans more toward the ridiculous and silly, not scary at all. There's plenty of blood and gore, but none of it is meant to be realistic. It's basically a live-action cartoon. The whole thing builds to a very juvenile punch-line, which I honestly thought was funny, that subverts an idea from horror or slasher flicks that are rather sex negative. This film instead ends on a very sex positive note, but not much of the comedy getting to that point made me laugh.

Judah Lewis (Point Break and Demolition) returns as Cole, the teenage boy who realized two years ago that his babysitter was part of a demonic cult that tried to extract his blood and kill him in order to complete a ritual that would magically give them whatever they wanted. The cult consisted of five people, including Cole's babysitter. Beyond their stereotypical and superficial personalities, it wasn't really clear who they were, what they wanted and why they were involved with the cult. The only thing that mattered was seeing the gory ways in which they died, as Cole accidentally killed them just trying to get away from them. It was also more about Cole getting over his social anxieties.

This film is still about him getting over anxieties. This time though, the anxieties stem from the trauma he suffered in the previous film. The filmmakers put a wrinkle in this film, much like in Terminator 2, that nobody believes that Cole is telling the truth about what he experienced. In Terminator 2, it made more sense because there was essentially a cover-up by a huge corporation. Here, the previous events took place at Cole's house. His parents knew who the perpetrator was. Again, this film is a live-action cartoon, so challenging the film's logic in the real world I suppose is pointless, but the film is adding more comedy by making the parents, specifically Cole's dad, seem dumb. Yet, it's a wasted bit of comedy.

Jenna Ortega (Elena of Avalor and Jane the Virgin) co-stars as Phoebe, a transfer student, the same age as Cole. She enters the scene unaware of Cole's history. However, she shares a kinship with him. She's a smart-ass, which isn't Cole's kinship, but she is suffering from a trauma and an extreme loss, which does put her more in line with him. She also shares with a him a love of films and certain pop culture references. She knows about Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as much if not more than Cole.

Adding Phoebe as a new character in this narrative would have been enough. Unfortunately, the filmmakers add a bunch of others that more bog down the narrative than anything else. The film brings back all the characters from the previous story. A criticism about the previous story is that it didn't really develop the original characters all that much, if at all. The babysitter and the members of the demonic cult were nothing but stereotypes and caricatures of high school or college-age people. This film attempts to rectify that criticism and reveal more about those cult members. That doesn't take up a lot of time in this narrative, mainly because McG races through those character developments, but it still takes up time. It even wastes time with Cole's parents. That waste of time along with the new characters introduced makes the film a bit too much.

Robbie Amell (Upload and The DUFF) returns as Max, the stereotypical jock. What we learn about him isn't really anything, except he's always been psychotic. His return is less so that we can learn more about him, as it it simply to have him running around shirtless again, showing off his muscular physique. Andrew Bachelor (Black Jesus and The Mindy Project) returns as John, the sassy and wise-cracking black guy. What we learn about him is that he wanted to be a recording artist. Bella Thorne (Midnight Sun and The DUFF) returns as Allison, the stereotypical cheerleader type who wanted to be a news anchor. Hana Mae Lee (Patriot and Pitch Perfect) returns as Sonya, the stereotypical Asian goth girl who wanted to be a mortician.

Finally, Samara Weaving (Netflix's Hollywood and Ready or Not) returns as Bee, the titular character who was Cole's babysitter in the first film and leads the troupe of cult members, trying to kill Cole. However, her character is pretty absent from the whole film. She doesn't appear until the last 20 minutes. It's then that the film attempts to retcon what she was doing or re-contextualize the events from the previous feature, specifically Bee's actions and motivations. The film tries to turn a villain into a hero and I don't think the film really squares that circle.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 42 mins.

Available on Netflix.