HOME ALONE meets SCARY MOVIE in a horror comedy that pits a young child against a group of teens as they perform a satanic ritual while babysitting. McG’s first attempt at horror may be more comedic but it sure as hell brings the blood and guts the genre so needs right now.

 

As young Cole (Judah Lewis) learns of his cool babysitter, Bee’s (Samara Weaving) hobby he must use his survival instinct to survive the night. Unfortunately for Cole, Bee has friends and as they try to capture him, the numbers depleat in true McG style.

 

THE BABYSITTER is bloody, violent and hilarious. While the red stuff comes thick and fast, each of the malevolent characters is funny to the bone and ramps up the tried and tested teen stereotypes to perfection. The chemistry between Lewis and Weaving is somewhat bittersweet and leaves the film leaving on a somewhat sombre note and while the film is primarily a horror, the humour is more akin to SCARY MOVIE than AMERICAN PSYCHO, often parodying the genre rather than embrassing it.

 

Over cool, and over the top, there’s no subetlty here and McG has managed to do the impossible, he’s managed to make a great movie without sacrificing any of his creative flair behind the camera. While films like TERMINATOR: SALVATION and CHARLIES ANGELS were crass adaptations of slicker material, here he’s in his element with total originality to play with and it works. If this were the 80’s, this would be one of the decades best and it’s easy to see that this is destined to be a cult classic.

 

With news already on the horizon that a follow up is in the works, we wait on hand and knee for more of what came before and with THE BABYSITTER, Netflix have another great classic to their library.