Netflix Has a Sequel to Horror-Comedy ‘The Babysitter,’ and Thankfully It Doesn’t Suck – Cincinnati CityBeat

(L to R): Andrew Bachelor, Bella Thorne and Robbie Amell return from the dead to get killed again in The Babysitter: Killer QueenPhoto: Netflix

When The Babysitterdebuted on Netflix in 2017, horror movie fans, including yours truly, fell madly in love with Samara Weaving, who played the titular character, Bee, a loving, charismatic mentor to young Cole (Judah Lewis), who also happened to be the leader of a fanatical blood cult.

The film was a raucous, gory delight, and remains the best movie on director McGs otherwise spotty IMDb profile.

Weaving has since garnered acclaim as a next generation scream queen, absolutely killing each successive role, whether Mayhem,Ready or Notor the criminally overlooked Guns Akimbo.

Which is why its a big deal that she, along with the entirety of the original cast, have returned for The Babysitter: Killer Queen, which just dropped on the streaming platform last week.

Killer Queenlacks the coherence and razor-sharp dialogue of its predecessor, but its a fun ride none the less.

Set two years after the first film, Cole is now suffering through a new kind of hell, high school, and still struggling to convince his parents and his therapist that what happened that night actually, you know,happened.

I feel like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2trying to convince people robots are real, Cole says early on in a voiceover.

Pop culture plays a big part in Killer Queen.

Phoebe (Jenny Ortega), left, and Cole (Judah Lewis) discover that their killer babysitter has unfinished business in McG's uneven but entertaining sequel.Photo: Netflix

New girl Phoebe (Jenna Ortega), a transfer student, casually drops references to Deliveranceand Rob Reiner when introducing herself in class.

Blood cult member Allison (Bella Thorn), in a flashback to an early job audition, proclaims, I want to be the worlds best journalist, like Geraldo, only fuckable.

You get the idea.

Both the humor and the special effects, which rely heavily on CGI carnage, are hit-or-miss, but viewers with patience are rewarded, including a gloriously bloody antler chandelier impalement.

Dont even bother with the story, which basically resurrects all the dead cultists, who have just hours before sunrise to complete the ritual from the first film or they will be stuck in limbo forever.

There are swerves and betrayals, new alliances forged and teen hormones put to the ultimate test. None of is life-or-death serious, and thats OK.

This isnt that kind of sequel.

Im actually pretty surprised that Weaving chose to return, given her rapid ascension, but its wonderful to see her even if her role is basically a series of extended cameos.

If The Babysitter: Killer Queenhad been a complete bomb, I would have called her decision a serious miscalculation, but its not.

To appreciate McG is to accept that he basically never stopped directing music videos, meaning he works best in short inspired sequences, and to overlook that he cribs a ton of visual cues from other, better movies. Thats OK, too.

There are flashes of Scott Pilgrim vs. The Worldsnippets of Valley Girland Clueless, and echoes of far superior satanic ritual thrillers, but what really matters is that The Babysitter: Killer Queenrockets along with purpose, rarely stalls and provides enough laughs and dismembered body parts to satisfy all demographics, regardless of age and/or taste.

If you cant appreciate the humor when one character tells another, too bad hes not here to blow my face all over you like a bukkake movie, then you really shouldnt be watching anyway.

John W. Allman has spent more than 25 years as a professional journalist and writer, but hes loved movies his entire life. Good movies, awful movies, movies that are so gloriously bad you cant help but champion them. Since 2009, he has cultivated a review column and now a website dedicated to the genre films that often get overlooked and interviews with cult cinema favorites like George A. Romero, Bruce Campbell and Dee Wallace. Contact him atBlood Violence and Babes.com, on Facebook@BloodViolenceBabesor on Twitter@BVB_reviews.

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Netflix Has a Sequel to Horror-Comedy 'The Babysitter,' and Thankfully It Doesn't Suck - Cincinnati CityBeat