Better Watch Out review
For your consideration…Better Watch Out should be an essential part of your Christmas horror viewing.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Better Watch Out
Directed by Chris Peckover
Written by Zack Kahn and Chris Peckover
Starring Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic, Dacre Montgomery, Patrick Warburton and Virginia Madsen
Better Watch Out Review
We’ve been covering new Christmas horror movies for the last week or so. We weren’t seeking out a new Christmas horror classic. Gremlins and the original Black Christmas exist, after all. While it feels reductive to say we binged holiday horror because…’tis the season…it would be a lie to say anything else. When you watch enough seasonal horror one overwhelming pattern emerges. The need to capture either the feeling of the season…or, at least, incorporate the adornments of the holiday…weaken the effectiveness of the horror.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We have plenty of pure horror movies already. Christmas horror often feels the same because it is being pulled in opposite directions by the parts that comprise it. It’s difficult to merge something sweet and something sour. That’s why we’re ending our seasonal run by opening the final present under the proverbial tree. Advocating for its inclusion into the Christmas horror classic canon. 2017’s Better Watch Out finds a way around the problem by leaving the sweet behind and embracing the sour.
The truth is…Better Watch Out doesn’t need to be set at Christmas. Sure, it takes its title from a Christmas song. Yes…a string of Christmas lights is used as rope. But the story could have happened at any time. That may sound like a reason not to consider it a seasonal classic…but it isn’t. Consider it the first twist on the formula that Better Watch Out has in store. See…the movie’s best trick is in embracing one of the biggest parts of the holiday season. The joy of being surprised.
Things start off normally enough. Babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) arrives for her babysitting job during the Christmas season. Luke (Levi Miller) is a soon-to-be 13-year-old who has an obvious crush on his babysitter. The horror begins with a home invasion. Just when you think you know what kind of movie this is…everything changes. What unfolds is a wild, dark, unexpected holiday treat.
Luke is a psychopath. He staged the home invasion with his friend Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) to attempt to play hero and seduce Ashley. When their ruse is exposed…Luke slaps Ashley down the stairs and ties her to a chair. He uses her phone to invite her boyfriend Ricky (Aleks Mikic) over and ties him up too. Later he pulls a similar tactic to pull an ex-boyfriend into the crossfire.
This gives us a small cast of characters to work with. Better Watch Out doesn’t waste any of them. Luke is completely deranged. He finds great happiness in his murders. He tests a trick Kevin McCallister pulled off with a paint can in Home Alone on a restrained Ricky. The result is completely bonkers. After the story delivers its surprise twist…it continues to surprise with how far it is willing to go. It does so with unabashed joy.
After Ricky is on the losing end of the paint can trick…Garrett questions why Luke killed him. It isn’t the first time you see a rift between the two. It becomes a key to Ashley finding a way out of this while Luke hangs her ex-boyfriend outside. Garrett decides to help Ashley. Luke shoots him to death. Another shocking moment from a movie full of them. It isn’t done yet.
Ashley deduces why Luke is so messed up from something that he says. He laments that his mother has been distant towards him. Ashley tells him that she knows why and then refuses to tell him. Her silence earns her a stab in the neck. Another shocking moment. Luke then runs around the house setting up the dead bodies to give the appearance that Ashley’s ex-boyfriend and tucks himself into bed to await his parents return. Home Alone isn’t the only John Hughes classic to be twisted into a dark idea. It’s all very Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Luke finally gets the hug from his mother he’s been craving so badly. As they look out the window Luke discovers that Ashley has survived the night. She heads to the hospital in an ambulance. Flipping him off with a smile. His master plan is about to fall apart. An early credits scene sees Luke trying to convince his mother to go to the hospital to check on Ashley. This leaves the ending somewhat ambiguous but really just promises a continued battle between one of the most interesting killers and a solid final girl. It’s a shame we never saw a sequel…but it doesn’t hurt Better Watch Out at all. Thinking about the future of these characters makes for a strong ending.
There are no candy canes used as knives or lines forged from a bad Christmas pun in Better Watch Out. It doesn’t make the same moves that most holiday horror movies do. Instead, it concentrates its efforts on delivering a story full of surprises and memorable moments. Ask yourself…what says Christmas more than that? If nothing else…it blows away most of the modern holiday horror fare.
Scare Value
Better Watch Out is a wild ride. Its unexpected turn leads to one of the best holiday horror movies ever made. A gleefully twisted bundle of joy. The twist draws you in but the insanity that follows makes it a modern classic. Christmas horror often finds itself bogged down by the incorporation of holiday cheer. Better Watch Out succeeds by focusing on the characters and letting the decoration be exactly that.
4/5
Better Watch Out Links
Streaming on Shudder, Prime Video, Peacock and Tubi
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
