By Robert Scucci
| Published
I have a confession to make. After watching (and absolutely loving) The Babysitter, I held off on watching its sequel, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, because its reviews overwhelmingly suggest that it pales in comparison to its predecessor. Here’s where I admit that letting outside influence dictate my own taste was the wrong decision to make because Killer Queen is a perfect sequel that shouldn’t be slept on if you’re basing your viewing choices on Rotten Tomatoes scores alone.
Past Is Prologue
2017’s The Babysitter is a teen slasher comedy with a simple premise that’s flawlessly executed. The story follows Cole (Judah Lewis), a high school freshman and outcast who has an overbearing crush on his sweet, understanding, cool, and disproportionately attractive babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving). When his parents leave town for the evening, Cole is thrilled to know that he’ll be spending the night with Bee.
That is, until Cole learns that Bee is the secret leader of a satanic death cult who needs the blood of a virgin in order to fulfill her deal with the Devil so she could become the best version of herself. Each member of Bee’s cult represents your typical Breakfast Club character archetype as they would exist in a slasher comedy context. Through these hyperbolic caricatures of goths, jocks, and cheerleaders, Cole is terrorized, and it’s easy to compare The Babysitter to films like Home Alone in the sense that Cole is trying to stand his ground and survive until help arrives.
With the help of his neighbor, and other on-again-off-again crush, Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind), Cole systematically kills off each cult member and lives through The Babysitter, allowing Killer Queen to explore new territory.
The Sequel Setup
The Babysitter: Killer Queen picks up two years after Cole’s traumatic soiree with Bee’s satanic cult, and things aren’t going great for him. His parents think he’s on the verge of a psychotic break because of his nightmares, he’s considered the weird kid at school, and even Melanie, who bore witness to the events that occurred during The Babysitter, has her doubts about the validity of his recollection of that bloody night. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to Phoebe Atwell (Jenna Ortega), a new student at Cole’s school who’s deadpan delivery and anti-social tendencies hint at a troubled past of her own in which her parents died under mysterious circumstances.
When Cole explains to Melanie that his parents want to send him off to a school for mentally ill teenagers, she urges him to instead ditch school and join her at a lake party. It just so happens that Phoebe has received an ominous warning of her own (menacingly hidden in the eyeball of her beloved childhood stuffed bunny), stating “it ends tonight,” along with the key to her family’s property that’s located at the very lake everybody else is congregating. As luck may have it, every single cult member that Cole killed off in The Babysitter has become reanimated in Killer Queen, and they’re primed to complete the sacrifice they failed to make good on two years ago.
Don’t Listen To The Critics
At first, I didn’t like the direction that The Babysitter: Killer Queen was taking – the reason the first film worked so well was because it was claustrophobic and was set almost entirely within the confines of Cole’s home. I couldn’t have been more misguided in my assumption about this film because it’s so shamelessly self-aware that it proudly wears its tropes on its sleeve. Each and every showdown in Killer Queen is gamified, and at some points there are even health bars hovering over each character as they brutally disembowel each other to let the viewer know the score in no uncertain terms.
The Babysitter: Killer Queen was written off by critics as a dumb sequel that tried to go too big, but consequently got more dumb, resulting in a 46 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. While I initially had my doubts about the franchise’s expansion, I’m wondering if anybody remembered how ridiculous The Babysitter was with its delivery in the first place.
A Solid Sequel
If you want a slasher with a little more substance (and a lot less style), maybe The Babysitter: Killer Queen isn’t the right movie for you. But if you loved the first film, there’s no reason I can think of that would deter you from watching its sequel. Don’t make the same mistake I did, because now I’m beaming with anticipation for the third and final installment that’s currently in development.
You can stream The Babysitter: Killer Queen on Netflix.
