Better Watch Out (movie 2016) how can you not cry? The children, the children, are out and wild...

  Every Christmas Eve. My dearly beloved and I watch a different scary Christmas movie. They can be tough to find, and they aren’t always all that good (yes, I’m looking at you the dumdum Black Christmas remake), but most of them are quite decent and often lots of fun.
    This year’s choice was the Aussie/US made but thoroughly Americanized Better Watch Out. Which is essentially an antiHomeAlone. Which is pretty freaking awesome.
     It’s Christmas Eve. And Luke’s bickering parents (perfectly clichéd Madsen and Warburton) are leaving for some party. They deem their 12-year-old son too young to stay home alone and so they call in his 17-year-old babysitter. The babysitter Luke’s been secretly obsessed with. The babysitter Luke thinks tonight’s the night to put the moves on.
     Their quiet evening of movie-watching gets off to a rough start and only gets rougher from there. Someone’s lurking outside, then someone’s lurking inside, then things get really messy.
      It’s difficult to talk about this movie without giving away plot twists and the plot twists here are too enjoyable, so let’s put a pin in the plot talk and discuss other things.
        Things like the cleverness of the plot which takes an oftentimes children-specific holiday and subverts by celebrating the potential dementedness of kids instead of their presupposed innocence. Luke with his cherubic appeal is pitch perfect for the role, played by the Pan of the 2015 Pan-musicale spectacle fame. The kid doesn’t seem to be getting enough acting gigs according to Wikipedia. Why is that?
       His bestie played by the kid from Wildlife (had to look him up, remembered the face, but couldn’t place him) is also perfectly credible as a somewhat reluctant sidekick.
        Trivia time…Oxebould (bff) is reunited here with DeJonge (babysitter) from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, where they played siblings. I totally forgot about that one.
        The rest of the cast is serviceable, but the movie belongs to the kids. And the kids have the most fun with it. It’s been too long since Macaulay defended his home on Christmas through his crafty heroics, Luke Lerner is the hero for the new age of kids that have been too addled by the modern world with all its compromised ideas, ebbing morals and questionable ethics, all the availability and violence, all the noise. It’s a frightening picture, it certainly makes for a fun movie. Enjoy responsibly and Merry Christmas to all :)