Better Watch Out
On a quiet suburban street, a babysitter must defend a twelve-year-old boy from intruders, only to discover it’s far from a normal home invasion.
Cast
Olivia DeJonge – Ashley
Levi Miller – Luke
Ed Oxenbould – Garrett
Aleks Mikic – Ricky
Dacre Montgomery – Jeremy
Better Not Watch
Jesus! Just after I found The Man Who Invented Christmas shockingly boring, this movie pops up and reveals itself to be shockingly shocking. Better Watch Out is a massive kick in the balls for all Home Alone fans, delivering nothing but a string of vulgar scenarios one after the other. The funny thing is, its plot isn’t even similar to that of the Macaulay Culkin hit but there is something eerily interchangeable; a young boy left at home by his parents who gets up to no good for starters. The house is completely in his hands, and unfortunately for his babysitter so is her life..
Better Watch Out has to be one of the most twisted things I have ever seen. In a word – it’s fucked up and if you dislike seeing people hurt others literally for the fun of it, steer clear. But equally, if you love horror films also steer clear because this is a bloody awful one. It’s a stupid idea executed poorly and fronted by one of the most unconvincing actors I have seen on screen in years. In fact I’ve never seen him (Miller) in anything before, but even as a newcomer he had absolutely no wow-factor. The man (boy) gives an incredibly wooden performance throughout, and watching him was like watching a child stutter its way through a nativity play.
A different kind of nativity play.
This is the whole movie package – in complete reverse, and to clarify: if blood-soaked horror flicks freak you out you’re not going to like Better Watch Out. But if you are a fan of wickedly devious horror stories – you’re also not going to like Better Watch Out. That’s right people – we’ve hit a brick wall. This movie is so bad in every way it probably won’t appeal to any viewer who sits down thinking they’re in for a slice of entertainment. It practically collapses in on itself, offering very little in the form of a teenage sociopath who gets off on (actually) smashing people’s faces in and tying his babysitter up with a length of Christmas fairy lights as she lays gagged and bloody.
To sum the movie up:
Boy’s parents leave him with his babysitter and head out for the night.
Boy sits babysitter down and tortures her, until her boyfriend shows up at the house.
Things get nasty when boy turns his psychotic attention to the boyfriend.
Events spiral out of control and more people get hurt than they should.
Better Watch Out is a very simple concept, but it’s not worth making an entire feature-length movie out of. It’s sick, and plays off the threatening bully thing for fun.
Better Than This
Levi Miller who plays Luke is a strange little thing. With his round head, glassy eyes and milky skin the young man looks like a doll come to life – but his image would fit right in amongst the cast of a musical like Oliver! or even Les Miserables. Yes.. Miller can do better than an unwatchable tacky piece of Christmas shite. Saying that, the scene where the kid takes his first victim and then performs a sinister victory dance with his baseball bat is strangely entertaining..
Olivia DeJonge as babysitter Ashley is absolutely superb. Like a fish out of water, the actress doesn’t fit in – at all. Her level of acting outweighs the two boys massively, god knows why she agreed to be part of this movie. Better Watch Out doesn’t deserve this kind of talent, and she is the perfect example of ‘the one who shouldn’t be there’. She is better than this.
Overall, Better Watch Out is a useless piece of cinema because of how badly put together it is. It is awful gore-wise because it lacks this element (the camera conveniently rolls away at violent points), and awful production-wise because of its desperate attempt at a story and extremely unconvincing scenarios. This is all-round terrible, and only worth a watch if you’re laying on the sofa one winter afternoon with a hangover whilst drifting in and out of sleep.
..not worth watching, basically.
It’s as though the producers fed three children a shitload of candy, dosed them right up on sugar, and sat back to film the results.
Better steer clear.
Ricky's Film Reviews 