The Babysitter

The Babysitter is a conspicuously mishandled combination of subtle black comedy and fantastical splatter. McG completely mindlessly mixes modern visuals with the most stereotypical teen characters, unoriginal gore scenes, ineffective allusions to cult films and stiff humour, and tries to string it all together in the story of a 12-year-old boy, another outsider who gets bullied at school. It could have worked within certain boundaries (if he woke up from a bad dream at the end, for example), but it shouldn’t have been so moronic and divorced from reality. (16.10.2020)

It delivers pretty much what the trailer promises: sterile, wannabe cool entertainment with pretty people in front of the camera, a light script and a serving of gory deaths that teenage boys might wank to. Of proper horror there isn’t even a pinch, of course, but nobody was expecting that from McG. The comparison to the recent Better Watch Out is an affront to horror fans. The two stars do deliver at least some decent craftsmanship in my eyes. In short, a perishable seasonal product. (14.10.2017)

Hats off. McG created an enjoyable horror comedy which made me feel the same way I felt when I watched Shaun of the Dead many years ago. It had great atmosphere, awesome cuts but it still wasn’t enough for 5 stars. There is not enough music for my taste. It is stylish only at the end when there is Queen playing in the background. It would be a lot better if there was more music in it. On the other hand the premise is brilliant and I have to say that Samara Weaving is great at picking her roles. This really is a movie crazy trip that makes fun of every slasher with great zeal. (12.09.2020)

Another variation on Home Alone like the recent Better Watch Out, and it succeeded just as well. Better Watch Out focused more on story and twists, whereas The Babysitter focuses mainly on gore and humour, so both score points with me, although seeing them all together in one film would have been even more of a kick. The film is nicely shot, very sexy, decently suspenseful and above all very gory, the deaths are impressive and will please the eye of many a horror fan. Definitely one of the best horror comedies this year. 75% (14.10.2017)

Hugo Weaving's niece in a swimsuit, with a kitchen knife or a shotgun, take your pick. A horror take on Home Alone with a dash of Satanism. The opening with the nanny that every boy (and not just boys) dreams of having sets the right tone and then spills over into the bloody destruction of the beautiful blonde's evil plans. It's often overwrought and McG seems to have ditched consistency and drama, but I enjoyed it unexpectedly a lot. (04.01.2023)

Bloody fun. Immensely stylish (when I think about it, McG is actually my favorite, but he does not tend to get very good scripts) and with a hugely likeable young hero. Don't expect horror stuffiness, it's mainly a parody. With liters of obviously fake red liquid and the famously used song “We Are The Champions." (26.12.2018)

It may be an eclectic pariah of all manner of stylistic tropes and clichés, but it's also so irresistibly quirky, fun and creative that I ended up quite liking it. A few scenes are downright stupid, and the pursuit of style sometimes makes it a parody even in moments when we should be at least a little scared, but some of the formal games are amusing (the intertitles), and the script in the second "slasher-exploitation-home invasion" half makes good use of the motifs outlined in the introduction (while being funny by reversing the roles, when the bad guys are gradually murdered). If it were more verbally humorous and more creative in generating tension or in the murders, I'd actually be very satisfied, this way most of my memories of the film will move to the third male hemisphere between my legs and involve Samara Weaving, who, if I had her as a babysitter, I'd quickly change my mind about whether it's really best to spend my evenings at the pub. (26.12.2017)

The Babysitter combines elements of horror and black comedy and if you don't take McG's film too seriously, you can enjoy it quite a bit. The film has an ideally short running time, more than a few WTF moments and in more than one scene is reminiscent of Home Alone (with an R-rating). Some of the moments, whether bloody or humorous, were effective, some less so (as was evident in the movie references, for example), but on the whole it was a likeable romp for just one viewing. (12.09.2023)

I think this film can be perfectly summed up by the word crap. Why the distributor listed it as a horror film is simply beyond me. Is it because of that terrible book? Or because of Samara Weaving's smile, which would scare off even a fully-grown shark? For a cheap laugh, it came in handy on a gloomy afternoon. Its runtime was by no means exaggerated, and those whose lives matter were given roles which might warrant a few lawsuits, because stereotypes. 3*- (25.11.2020)

In its own way, The Babysitter is an entertaining bit of silliness that reflects on the present day in a sometimes hilarious way (the most tragic thing about dying is losing followers on Instagram!) and you can’t deny its inventiveness. But it's not scary enough for a horror film and not funny enough for a comedy, i.e. it's a kind of weird farce with a few passable gore moments. Samara Weaving is, of course, a hottie and she clearly pulls it off here. Because the rest of the ensemble are incredibly wooden. The dynamic direction is fine, but it perhaps stands out a little too ostentatiously above everything else in this film (except for Samara Weaving's acting). (25.09.2020)