BETTER WATCH OUT
Director : Chris Peckover
Year : 2017
Genre : Horror
Rating : ****
For its first 20 or so minutes, 'Better Watch Out' plays out as a fairly standard teen slasher picture, with a small group of youngsters being chased around a house by an unknown masked assailant; I know, ''Yawn, seen it all before". However in it's second act, the film rather unexpectedly transforms into a deeply disturbing and blackly comic shocker that owes more to the gruesome traditions of Euro- indie horror than it does to the well-trod conventions of generic franchise fare. And I loved every single blood-spattered second of it.
In the movie, Levi Miller stars as Luke, a deeply repressed 12 year old kid whose obsessive crush on his 17 year old babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) goes a little bit too far and what begins as a practical joke designed to lure Ashley into the comfort of his prepubescent arms soon turns into something far more sinister. And to say any more about the plot would really spoil the fun. From his opening scene, Miller (who builds on the potential shown in Joe Wright's wildly misjudged fantasy bomb 'Pan' (2015)) is both charming and creepy and delivers one of the best performances from a young actor this year while Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould (who both starred together in M. Night Shyamalan's thrilling horror -comedy 'The Visit' (2015)) impress as the two unlucky souls caught up in Luke's callous games. But the true star of the show is the narrative itself which is chock-a-block full of twists and turns as well as several moments of spontaneous violence which are sure to illicit big gasps from audiences.
Expertly directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Chris Peckover, wonderfully acted by its young cast, delightfully nasty at times and containing more festive imagery than you can shake a candy cane at, 'Better Watch Out' joins the naughty list alongside other Christmas horror gems such as 'Black Christmas' (1974), 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' (1984), 'Christmas Evil' (1980) and 'Krampus' (2015) and should perfectly satisfy the bloodlust of those who like their annual Yuletide celebrations to come with with a side-helping of sadism.
In the movie, Levi Miller stars as Luke, a deeply repressed 12 year old kid whose obsessive crush on his 17 year old babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) goes a little bit too far and what begins as a practical joke designed to lure Ashley into the comfort of his prepubescent arms soon turns into something far more sinister. And to say any more about the plot would really spoil the fun. From his opening scene, Miller (who builds on the potential shown in Joe Wright's wildly misjudged fantasy bomb 'Pan' (2015)) is both charming and creepy and delivers one of the best performances from a young actor this year while Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould (who both starred together in M. Night Shyamalan's thrilling horror -comedy 'The Visit' (2015)) impress as the two unlucky souls caught up in Luke's callous games. But the true star of the show is the narrative itself which is chock-a-block full of twists and turns as well as several moments of spontaneous violence which are sure to illicit big gasps from audiences.
Expertly directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Chris Peckover, wonderfully acted by its young cast, delightfully nasty at times and containing more festive imagery than you can shake a candy cane at, 'Better Watch Out' joins the naughty list alongside other Christmas horror gems such as 'Black Christmas' (1974), 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' (1984), 'Christmas Evil' (1980) and 'Krampus' (2015) and should perfectly satisfy the bloodlust of those who like their annual Yuletide celebrations to come with with a side-helping of sadism.
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