movie review better watch out

Better Watch Out

The Christmas-themed home-invasion movie “Better Watch Out” starts out as one kind of unpleasant, then switches gears to a higher level of unearned nastiness. This is the kind of lousy horror movie that hinges on a twist that comes about 30 minutes in: protagonists you thought were innocent are now implicated, leaving viewers with a completely different understanding of their prior behavior and their general nature. I won’t tell you more about the twist because it is, realistically, the film’s only novelty. But after it has played out, the film runs on the cheap fumes of “Betcha Didn’t See That Coming” shock tactics. If you do, in fact, see it all coming, or if you simply do not enjoy having characters’ malicious behavior rubbed in your face for a solid hour, you’ll check out, unless you can convince yourself that stock horror movie characters become interesting simply by virtue of having been turned upside-down.

The movie follows two examples of horror archetypes, pubescent “nice guy” nerds and a “ final girl ” babysitter, as they are stalked and harassed by mysterious home invaders around Christmas-time. Horndog teens Luke ( Levi Miller ) and Garrett ( Ed Oxenbould ) contemplate losing their virginity behind closed bedroom doors. Luke wants to put the moves on five-years-older sitter Ashley ( Olivia DeJonge ), who gets left alone with Luke when his pushover dad ( Patrick Warburton ) and control freak mom ( Virginia Madsen ) head out to a party. Luke desperately tries to walk Ashley to second base by drinking his parents’ booze and awkwardly putting his head on her shoulder. Thankfully, Ashley doesn’t have to peel Luke off her leg for long: somebody has slipped into the house while nobody was paying attention. And they have a mask and a gun. Simple so far, right?

Well, buckle up, dear reader, because things are not what they seem! The zeal with which writer/director Chris Peckover and co-writer Zack Kahn turn the tables on viewers’ understanding of this scenario is obnoxious unto itself. What’s worse is the way that Peckover and Kahn demand that you stay invested in paper-thin characters as they proceed to terrorize each other and/or ineffectively strain against victimization. Every possible contrivance is thrown at viewers, from a booby-trapped backyard to a cell phone dropped in a fish tank. The baddies are always somehow faster and more agile than the good guys, and the victims are only interesting because of the mitigating circumstances that humanize them long enough to make you root for them. We’re given no reason to care about these characters, beyond simple “Run away faster!” or “Beat him up!” impulses.

“Better Watch Out” is an infuriating sit because it requires you to invest in the programmatic bullying of a certain type of character, then cheer on that same stock type as he or she defies expectations and refuses to be pummeled into oblivion. It’s the kind of movie that pushes your buttons at every turn, and casts actors based solely on their ability to play to your snap judgments of what they’re   “really” like off-screen. Peckover and Kahn run with those notions, then let you fill in the blanks of what their characters are actually like, drawing on decades of other genre films that sold you the same bill of goods: sexual repression bad, token female empowerment good. When the film ends, we’ve been traded one set of unchallenging cliches for another. 

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

• Dacre Montgomery as Jeremy
• Olivia DeJonge as Ashley
• Ed Oxenbould as Garett
• Tara Jade Borg as Caroler
• Patrick Warburton as Robert
• Virginia Madsen as Deandra
• Levi Miller as Luke
• Aleks Mikic as Ricky
• Brian Cachia

Cinematographer

• Carl Robertson
• Chris Peckover
• Julie-Anne De Ruvo

Writer (story by)

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Better Watch Out Reviews

I think it's a fantastic storyline but it may have taken it a step too far to be believable for me.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 22, 2021

Better Watch Out is the definition of a horror comedy, with great performances all around.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2020

Better Watch Out is a fun, surprisingly emotional horror movie experience.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2019

Better Watch Out is a festive treat all year round. And you'd better watch it.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Oct 4, 2019

Better Watch Out is like a puzzle that horror fans get to dissect, which makes it a true joy to watch. Even better, it's a movie that demands you react to it. You'll laugh. You'll yell at characters. You'll cringe.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 5, 2019

The pretensions of 'Better Watch Out' are modest, but for what it pretends to do it does a great job. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 20, 2019

Sharp direction, snappy dialogue, clever comedy, tasty looking pizza and a game-changing twist all come together to create a fun, creepy and entertaining holiday horror movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Dec 21, 2018

Most notably, a merry-minded macabre middle finger to the Yuletide season in the charmingly twisted and creatively corrosive suburban home invasion horror thriller 'Better Watch Out'.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 9, 2018

Better Watch Out is a joyous festive horror treat.

Full Review | Nov 3, 2018

Better Watch Out breaks the mold of the typical holiday slasher and is sure to be on everyone's holiday must-watch list. It takes what audiences love about the holidays and everything they love about horror to create a fun new Christmas movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 2, 2018

Provides a fun twist on the home invasion sub-genre that should give horror fans a hilariously disturbing viewing experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2018

Better Watch Out goes to completely unexpected and(...)gruesome places. The nasty shocks are off-set by treading the always tricky horror/comedy line with wit aplomb, thanks to a cocky, confident script by Kahn and director Chris Peckover.

Full Review | Sep 21, 2018

Better Watch Out is a fresh, snarky, twisted horror that's a perfect addition for the holiday season.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 25, 2018

It may be gimmicky and nasty, but it's also an enjoyable freak-out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5 | Apr 24, 2018

...a disappointing misfire.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 26, 2018

Though occasionally unsurprising, it joins Krampus and Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale as a strong alternative to the regular holiday viewing because of the nasty genre thrills it delivers whilst being wickedly funny.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2018

In Better Watch Out, [director Chris] Peckover has succeeded in creating a truly chilling horror which, I hope, will generate plenty of talk this Christmas.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2017

If Better Watch Out was a Yuletide beverage, it'd be spiked eggnog: you think you know what you're getting, but after a couple of sips it turns out to be something very different.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2017

... Better Watch Out is a delightfully nasty seasonal inversion, replete with carollers, decorations, themed jumpers and booze.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 11, 2017

An interesting take on the home invasion model it's well acted, tongue in cheek, often funny and although not terrifying provides a few jumps and more than the average number of surprises.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 11, 2017

Better Watch Out (II) (2016)

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Film Review: ‘Better Watch Out’

Nice rapidly turns to naughty in this Christmas-set black comedy horror film.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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“Home Alone” meets “The Bad Seed” in “Better Watch Out,” a clever black comedy-cum-horror pic in which the apparent home invasion that traps a babysitter and her charges turns out to be something else entirely. This macabre Christmas movie, a co-production shot in Australia but set in Anytown USA, seems destined to become one of those Yuletide perennials for people who like their holiday-themed entertainment as perversely un-wholesome as possible. It’s already sold to numerous territories (including Well Go for North America) with an eye toward a seasonally appropriate late-2017 release.

Squabbling as usual before leaving for a dinner party, the Lerners (expert comic turns by Virginia Madsen and Patrick Warburton, seen again just briefly at the end) leave only-child Lukas ( Levi Miller ) in the care of Ashley (Olivia DeJonge). At age 12, you might expect Luke to chafe at still requiring a sitter. But in fact he has high expectations for the night with this very pretty teen who’s minded him for years now — absurd expectations, perhaps, of declaring his love and even consummating it.

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When, after having sneaked some champagne, he duly commences such overtures, Ashley’s reaction is exactly as bemused and appalled as any grownup might expect. However, the awkward standoff is interrupted by mystery phone calls, signs of disturbance both inside and out the house, then finally a clear threat of menacing intruders.

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It would be spoiling the first major surprise to reveal more, beyond noting that the rapidly escalating events soon involve Lukas’ geeky playmate Garrett (Ed Oxenbould), as well as luring Ashley’s current boyfriend (Aleks Mikic’s Ricky) and past one (Dacre Montgomery as Jeremy) into the mix. Phones and computers are conveniently disabled even before people starting being duct-taped to dining room chairs. What starts out looking like a prank run amuck gradually grows more sinister, with director Chris Peckover (“Undocumented”) nicely handling the swerves toward dramatic peril and fatal consequences while still maintaining a confectionary “family entertainment” veneer of antic doings in a glossy suburban setting.

A familiar suspension of disbelief is required by Zack Kahn and Peckover’s script — the kind that requires you accept that someone very young might already be a diabolical mastermind and that no one in their life would have noticed. But the slightly cartoonish air (from variably caricatured supporting roles to a soundtrack full of ironic Christmas cheer) enables that leap, just as the eventual grimly serious moments are impactful without straying into bad taste or cynical misanthropy.

Aussie thesp DeJonge of “The Visit” (sporting an American accent, like everyone here) provides grit and resilience as the principal victim, who never stops trying to re-assert her authority as the designated adult (or near-adult). Miller (from “Pan” and “Jasper Jones”) is quite startling as a seemingly ordinary brat whose precociousness gets ever more alarming. Many movies in this general realm fail because the juvenile actor can’t quite summon a full, convincing depth of malevolence. It’s surely a testament to this actor’s resources that eventually we can conceive of no fate too cruel for a character at once so monstrous and infuriatingly childish. Oxenbould and Mikic also impress, dimensionalizing smaller, potentially one-note roles.

Shot in a Sydney studio for a hyperreal, snow-globe look that subtly sends up more conventional Christmas movies, the film’s design contributions add up to a deceptively bright, cheerful widescreen package. Brian Cachia’s orchestral score likewise goes for a subversive effect by aping the sounds of mainstream family seriocomedies, though the content here is more grand guignol than “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” The now more cannily titled “Better Watch Out” was called “Safe Neighborhood” during its production and initial screenings last year.

Reviewed at Seattle Film Festival, June 11, 2017. (Also in Fantastic, Sydney film festivals.) Running time: 89 MIN.

• Production: (Australia-U.S.) A Well Go USA release (U.S.) of a Storm Vision Entertainment and Best Medicine Prods. presentation. (International sales: Versatile, Paris.) Producers: Sidonie Abbene, Brion Hambel, Paul Jensen, Brett Thornquest. Executive producers: Steven Matsuko, Shane Abbess. Co-producers: Matthew Graham, Matthew Jennison.
• Crew: Director: Chris Peckover. Screenplay: Zack Kahn, Chris Peckover, from a story by Kahn. Camera (color, widescreen, HD): Carl Robertson. Editor: Julie-Anne De Ruvo (confirm). Music: Brian Cachia.
• With: Levi Miller, Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Dacre Montgomery, Aleks Mikic, Patrick Warburton, Virginia Madsen.

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Better Watch Out is a surprising, strange Christmas horror-comedy about idiotic boys

‘tis the season for toxic pre-teen masculinity.

By Kaitlyn Tiffany

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This fall,  The Verge  is making a choice.  The choice is fear ! We’ve decided to embrace the season by taking in as many new horror movies as possible and reporting back on which ones are worth your time. We’re calling this series  Hold My Hand , as we look at films you might want to watch with a supportive viewing partner. Get comfortable, put the kettle on, check the closet for ghosts, then find a hand to squeeze until the bones pop.

Christmas is scary. You’re waltzing toward credit-card debt and decorating your home with dried-out dead plants covered in electric accessories. You’re singing songs about infanticide and 400-pound animals that can fly. You’re expected to feel nothing but joy, but sometimes you feel sad or angry because the people around you aren’t behaving the way you want them to. Maybe you swallow that sadness alongside half a pound of fudge, or maybe you start acting like a total freak.

how about... a christmas horror movie with a reference to sam rockwell’s character in charlie’s angels

That’s the basic premise of Better Watch Out , a new home-invasion horror film about a pre-teen boy named Luke (Levi Miller), whose parents are gross. He’s in love with his babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) and decides the holidays are the time to tell her. There’s a twinge of something dark in his eyes when he tricks her into letting him pair their pizza with a few glasses of champagne, then whines, “You’ve been drinking, so why won’t you kiss me?” But minutes later, there’s a brick flying through an upstairs window and the phone lines have been cut, so Ashley hardly has any time to dwell on this embarrassing come-on. From that point, the story careens through a series of increasingly bizarre twists, references, and imaginative, technicolor displays of gore. But it keeps coming back to Luke’s angelic little mug — what the heck’s going on behind the facade of this Gap Kids ad?

The film is directed by Chris Peckover, whose only other feature-length credit is 2010’s Undocumented , a horror mockumentary film about anti-immigration radicals in New Mexico. He co-wrote Better Watch Out with Zack Kahn, another relative unknown who spent three years writing for the animated Mad series.

A black comedy set around Christmas isn’t such an odd pairing in an entertainment era that loves pastiche and tonal clash, and it isn’t exactly a novel idea . But Better Watch Out is truly nutso, with a reference-range the size of Texas. It pulls liberally from the recent-ish history of kitsch, including obvious references to a handful of secular Christmas classics — mostly A Christmas Story and Home Alone — and faster, weirder winks at totally unrelated action-movie camp, like Sam Rockwell’s big heel-turn moment in Charlie’s Angels , or Heath Ledger’s infinitely memed “How about a magic trick?” bit in The Dark Knight .

At least you won’t spend one second of Better Watch Out wondering if you might be a little bored.

IS IT SCARY?

It’s hard to answer this question without spoiling Better Watch Out’ s crucial twist, but it’s mostly a black comedy with a few jump-scares and one or two moments of lurid gore that a pre-teen boy might find funny. Maybe this was clear to you from the trailer’s unidentifiable, bratty pop-punk cover of “Deck the Halls.”

At its scariest, Better Watch Out recalls the sardonic, twisted sense of humor in Michael Haneke’s Funny Games remake. So you’re less likely to fall out of your seat than you are to feel the bottom of your stomach fall out of your body.

WILL I CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS?

Yes! Olivia DeJonge is incredible as Ashley, the goody-two-shoes babysitter who can also turn on a dime to mutter some lethal burns. An up-and-coming Australian actress, she’s best known in the US for her role in the M. Night Shyamalan renaissance , playing teen documentarist Becca in 2015’s The Visit .

DeJonge does a brilliant job of capturing just how many contradictions people still expect 17-year-old girls to manage, and she forces this to the forefront of the film even when it doesn’t seem like the script acknowledged it much. The dance Ashley has to do around Luke’s confused sexual obsession with her is a complicated production — she’s warm, stern, maternal, funny, professional, friendly, and kind even as she wants more than anything to be alone.

As for the rest of the characters, well, this isn’t a movie that’s going to make anyone with a Y chromosome feel great about themselves.

IS IT VISUALLY IMPRESSIVE?

For a home-invasion movie (so low-budget, there wasn’t even enough cash to air-condition the set ), Better Watch Out has surprisingly complex production design. The house and yard were designed by Richard Hobbs, who was also the supervising art director for Mad Max: Fury Road , and it’s clear that he had a lot of fun with the holiday setting. What if all the many giddy hours you spent stringing up Christmas decorations were actually unknowing labor toward creating a lethal Rube Goldberg machine?

Plus the whole film is shot with the warm glow of a holiday classic, a transparent attempt to make each new turn of events feel like a fresh assault on comfort. Listen, it doesn’t have to be clever to be effective.

WHAT’S LURKING BENEATH THE SURFACE?

In interviews , Peckover called Better Watch Out a tribute to Wes Craven, and Scream in particular. He’s also said he pitched it around by asking, “What if you took a John Hughes movie setup with a 12-year-old boy trying to win over his babysitter, and then gave that script to Quentin Tarantino, like, ‘Now fuck this up’?”

He clearly wants this movie to subvert horror tropes and expectations, but that mission has long been its own horror-movie trope. And it’s recently been revitalized in home invasion movies in particular, starting with You’re Next and The Cabin in the Woods, and echoing through Don’t Breathe , Hush , and the awful new remake of Dementia 13 . If there’s anything we actually do expect from horror movies in 2017 — post- Get Out , post- Mother! , post-Kevin-Smith-does-horror-now — it’s to have our expectations subverted. That idea isn’t enough.

Fortunately, Olivia DeJonge carries the film on her shoulders, even in sock feet. She’s asked to act the film’s most emotional sequences with duct tape over her mouth! Peckover insists on calling the end of Better Watch Out ’s first act “a million-dollar twist,” and it is pretty good. But it would be nothing if DeJonge hadn’t quietly resolved to turn in one of the best horror-movie performances of the year.

She gives Better Watch Out a reason to exist by providing it with an undercurrent it wouldn’t have otherwise. Shoving all the showy stuff aside and focusing only on her, Better Watch Out becomes a solid movie about holding onto a moral code and a sense of humor under pressure. It’s almost a coming-of-age movie, with the cynical but not ridiculous viewpoint that a young woman’s coming of age in modern America involves running headlong into five or six types of toxic masculinity, and figuring out how to survive them.

HOW CAN I WATCH IT?

Better Watch Out opens in limited release on October 6th, and it will also be available to rent on Vudu .

IS THIS A HAND-HOLDING MOVIE?

A little bit of hand-holding happens in Better Watch Out , but for the most part, you’ll need your hands for more practical concerns while you’re watching it. For example: to use as an added flourish when you gasp, or to cover your eyes during a revolting sequence involving a pencil, a face, and a joint rolled by a 12-year-old. Or you might need them to order a pizza. It’s so hard to watch people eat pizza in a movie when you yourself don’t have any pizza.

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Horror-comedy Better Watch Out puts the carnage into Christmas: EW review

Director Chris Peckover's film is a twisty, bloody riff on 'Home Alone'

Senior Writer

The title of this yuletide-set horror-comedy gives an ominous edge to the lyrics of that old chestnut “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” But it also serves as a warning not to reveal too much about director/co-writer Chris Peckover’s tricksy film — a warning your reviewer intends to heed, lest he find himself on St. Nick’s “naughty list.”

Levi Miller stars as Luke, a 12-year-old who has the embarrassingly inappropriate hots for his babysitter (Olivia DeJonge). After Luke’s parents (Virginia Madsen and a deliciously weird Patrick Warburton) leave for a party, he sets about trying to woo his object of desire with a mix of champagne and horror movies. The terror, however, turns real when they find themselves the victims of a home invasion. The ensuing mayhem strongly suggests that Macaulay Culkin’s defense of his abode in the Home Alone films would have resulted in the violent deaths of Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.

Peckover’s sharp directing keeps things nicely nasty without ever going too far over the top — though it’s possible some gore-averse Scrooges may disagree. If you want to gift yourself a holiday film that decks the halls with blood, this is one to put under the tree. B+

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Better Watch Out (2017) – REVIEW

B etter Watch Out opens with a shot of a cute snowman. The snowman gets clobbered by a couple of rowdy kids, losing its head. This is as good a way as any to set the scene for the movie we’re about to watch. Written and directed by Zack Kahn and Chris Peckover and directed by Peckover, Better Watch Out provides an unusual experience. Dark, disturbing, and yet not without camp value and humor (which serves to make the piece even more disturbing in its ironic juxtapositions), the film is a very visceral experience.

We begin with middle-school aged Luke (Levi Miller) and best buddy Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) in Luke’s bedroom, discussing the night ahead. Babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is coming over so that Luke’s parents can go to a Christmas party. Luke and Garrett, both about twelve or thirteen years old, discuss Luke’s upcoming attempts at seducing Ashley. It’s pretty shocking stuff if you’ve never been a boy in his early teens or had any interaction with them whatsoever. It’s a strange and awkward time, of course, stuck in transition, knowing that more adult experiences are just around the corner and just out of reach. But none of this talk matters when Luke’s feeble attempts at seduction are interrupted by a home invader.

The Christmas setting might seem confusing at first, maybe like a kind of crass marketing gimmick, a hook of some sort. But when a big plot twist comes around thirty minutes into the film and we realize that this isn’t the story we thought we were getting at first, the Christmas season provides a neat juxtaposition to the violence that ensues. The supposed sweetness of the season combined with over-the-top brutality create several interesting layers of irony, heightening the very disturbing thesis that Peckover explores.

Better Watch Out is certainly a very visceral movie, in ways that you probably won’t see coming, but that’s part of the movie’s charm, if that’s even the right word. The three young actors do a wonderful job here, hyper-aware of the type of movie they’re in, adding realism when needed and a touch of camp whenever the script calls for it. The tone that Peckover was going for just wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for these very talented young folks, who clearly have a bright future ahead of them.

The press release and more than one reviewer has pointed out that this is kind of like a horror version of Home Alone, and the comparison makes sense enough, even more than the home invasion at Christmas angle. Better Watch Out even references it in a pretty gruesomely overt way. The comparison is also apt in that it’s sort of a version of Home Alone if the violence had actual consequences. But don’t take this to mean that Better Watch Out is totally realistic. It does have quite a campy vibe at times, an undeniable B-movie aesthetic. The B-movie stuff sometimes dulls the emotional impact of the violence a bit and the movie gets this close to a more crass kind of exploitation film, but it never crosses that line.

Better Watch Out is a fun, surprisingly emotional horror movie experience. I’m not sure moviegoers who aren’t already fans of the genre will enjoy it, but horror fans will most definitely get a lot out of it.

Better Watch Out will be released theatrically and on demand on October 6th.

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Review: ‘Better Watch Out’ delivers nasty holiday fun

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In the long, sordid history of the “Christmas horror” sub-genre, there’s never been a movie quite like “Better Watch Out,” a consistently surprising and unusually well-acted thriller, which says pertinent things about suburbia, holiday entertainment and toxic masculinity.

A cast of veteran Australian child actors credibly evokes upper-middle-class Americana, with Olivia DeJonge playing Ashley, a teenage babysitter who takes a last-minute gig to look after 12-year-old Luke (Levi Miller). What Ashley doesn’t anticipate is that Luke — who’s long had a crush on her — has enlisted his nerdy friend Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) to scare her into his arms.

The plan almost immediately takes some unexpected turns, as other guests drop by. Gradually, Ashley figures out what’s happening, and has to use her wiles to protect herself and the household she’s been hired to safeguard.

“Better Watch Out” wowed audiences on the festival circuit (under the title “Safe Neighborhood”) with jarring twists (best left undiscussed here), polished performances and director Chris Peckover’s accomplished style. But what’s likely to make it an enduring cult favorite is how attuned Peckover and his co-writer, Zack Kahn, are to the treacly nonsense of Christmas movies and the perverse fantasies of adolescent boys. From the shockingly raunchy dialogue to the ironic yuletide pop songs, this movie is a fun kind of nasty.

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‘Better Watch Out’

Rating: R, for disturbing violent content, language throughout, crude sexual references, drug and alcohol use — all involving teens

Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Playing: Arena Cinelounge Sunset, Hollywood

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Fun 'Better Watch Out' is for fans of twisted, unhinged horror

• Critic's rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

“Better Watch Out” is the thinking person’s stupid holiday horror movie.

Which means that ultimately it’s not stupid at all.

Co-writer and director Chris Peckover clearly knows his way around both the holiday and horror genres, and while this isn’t the first time someone has blended the two, it is one of the more-effective efforts. It’s scary and fun, if your idea of fun involves occasional gore and torture, things like that. Plus: Christmas decorations!

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Luke (Levi Miller) is a 12-year-old boy hanging out with his best friend, Garrett (Ed Oxenbould), waiting for his babysitter to arrive. Luke’s parents (Patrick Warburton and Virginia Madsen, terrific in acerbic cameos) are going to a holiday party, so Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is on the way over.

The prospect certainly excites Luke. Ashley is about to move out of town, so, despite the age-and-maturity gap, Luke plans to make his move once his parents are gone.

That goes about as well as you’d expect, especially since Ashley keeps spending time on the phone with her boyfriend (Alexis Mikic). Popping the cork on some champagne doesn’t impress her as much as he had hoped (Luke is 12, after all). But he finally sits on the couch with her to watch a horror movie, hoping that might make her at least need comforting. She’s agreeable to the idea, and is indeed scared by the movie.

They were going to order a pizza, but Ashley forgot to make the call. Then, the pizza delivery guy shows up. But wait, who ordered it? Maybe Luke’s dad? Doesn’t he know Luke hates mushrooms?

Then they hear a noise outside.

From there things take a turn toward horror. And then a sharper turn in the same direction. But there are a lot of curves along the way. Peckover does a really good job of setting up expectations and then subverting them — and sometimes switching things around again.

It would spoil things to say much more, except in generalities. For instance, there is some gleeful sadism on display here, which fits surprisingly neatly alongside the film’s “Home Alone” fixation (both implicit and explicit). One minute you think it might be a triumph-of-the-geeks story. The next, you’re not so sure.

A vein of increasingly dark humor runs throughout the film — again, for those who are able to find laughs in this kind of thing. But if you like your horror unhinged, you won’t be disappointed.

The performances are uniformly good, though no one approaches the expert bickering between old pros Madsen and Warburton. DeJonge and especially Miller are good at what they’re asked to do, although saying more would be unfair.

Peckover doesn’t skimp on the holiday trappings. There are carolers, holiday songs, bright lights and a light-up Santa that keeps showing up unexpectedly. It’s a nice touch — this really does feel like a holiday movie, right up until the point that it doesn’t, unless the holiday in question is Halloween.

Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

'Better Watch Out,' 3.5 stars

Director: Chris Peckover.

Cast: Levi Miller, Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould.

Rating: R for disturbing violent content, language throughout, crude sexual references, drug and alcohol use, all involving teens.

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

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Better watch out.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 15 Reviews
• Kids Say 21 Reviews

Based on 21 kid reviews

Kid Reviews

Wth is this.

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Amazing horror film has blood, humiliation and swearing - not for tweens.

• Great role models
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A great film that would be enjoyable for mature kids.

• Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Go in blind!!

• Too much sex

Threatening; Pointless; Overreaching.

Highly violent and incredible xmas horror, very violent but very good, absolutely amazing, a horror-comedy masterpiece, what to watch next.

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Better Watch Out (2016)

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When you think the suburbs, you think safety, but this holiday night the suburbs are anything but safe. Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) thought this babysitting job was going to be an easy night, but the night takes a turn when dangerous intruders break in and terrorize her and the twelve-year-old boy, Luke (Levi Miller), she’s caring for. Ashley defends her charge to the best of her ability only to discover this is no normal home invasion.

Better Watch Out Red Band Trailer Promises One Killer Christmas

A young babysitter gets much more than she bargained for when a killer breaks into the house in the red band trailer for Better Watch Out.

Better Watch Out Trailer Is Home Alone Meets Scream

A babysitting job goes horribly awry in the first teaser for the Christmas thriller Better Watch Out, in theaters this fall.

Screen Rant

How better watch out sets up a perfect sequel (will it happen).

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The 2016 psychological horror movie Better Watch Out ends with the perfect set up for a sequel, but will it ever happen? In Chris Peckover's holiday themed horror flick, a babysitter must keep the child in her care safe from a home intruder. In this midst of her night-long fight for survival, several major twists take place that all lead up to an ending worthy of the sequel treatment.

Olivia DeJonge stars as Ashley the babysitter. DeJonge may look familiar, as she portrayed Becca from 2016's The Visit and Elle in Netflix's on-again, off-again series, The Society . Ashley is set to watch over Luke Lerner (Levi Miller), who has a notable crush on the young woman, which he reveals in the very beginning of the movie. Throughout the movie, viewers are led to believe that this will be a classic case of a holiday home invasion gone wrong, except it's not. Luke has plans to torture and subsequently kill Ashley and her ex-boyfriends, one of whom is played by Dacre Montgomery of Stranger Things fame. By the end of the boy's sadistic, Home Alone inspired killings, Luke believes he's covered his tracks and there is no possible way he could get caught. While Luke's unexpected role as the killer was a major twist in itself, Ashley's ability to survive was an even bigger one, which led the movie into prime sequel territory.

Related: Better Watch Out vs. The Babysitter: Which Horror Movie Is Better (& Why)

Holiday horror movies are relatively common , with at least one releasing every year. They commonly fall under the umbrella of B-rated flicks, and usually don't make much of an impact on the genre. Better Watch Out is a very special case, as it is a home invasion movie with a major twist alongside its holiday flare. Its current rating on Rotten Tomatoes is much higher at 89% than one of the most popular home invasion movies of the 21st century, Bryan Bertino's The Strangers , which sits comfortably at 78%. With its high ratings, inventive storytelling in two horror sub-genres, and an impeccable ending, it's astounding that Better Watch Out 2 hasn't happened yet.

As the frame pans from Ashley giving Luke the middle finger, he asks his mom if they can go visit her in the hospital to make sure that she is okay. It's likely that he plans to go to the hospital to finish what he started by killing her. If it gets out that he's killed numerous people in the span of one night, it could be the end of his freedom as he knows it. This closing scene allows for Peckover to expand the story of Ashley and Luke by situating the two in a hospital environment, similar to Halloween 2, where Jamie Lee Curtis's Laurie Strode evades her would-be killer, Michael Myers, in Haddonfield Hospital. The director could have also potentially set the sequel several years in the future, with Luke running free and Ashley in a psychiatric facility for claiming that he's a killer.

There are several routes that could be taken if a sequel for Better Watch Out happens, but, as of this writing, there is still no word about a follow-up movie. At this point, it's unlikely that it will ever happen if Peckover hasn't said anything. The movie does work well as a standalone, so he may not even view a sequel as entirely necessary. As of 2020, Peckover is working on a supernatural movie that he's keeping fairly under wraps. With his sights set on different projects, the likelihood of him revisiting Better Watch Out is very slim. This could be attributed to the director's choice in retaining Better Watch Out's uniqueness, but it's also possible that he recognizes the failures of the holiday horror franchises that proceeded his movie.

1984's Silent Night, Deadly Night is one of the best examples for how a relatively successful Christmas themed horror movie expanded into a franchise with sequels that could never hold up to the original. While the opportunity for a sequel was set up by Better Watch Out 's ending, it works perfectly as a standalone feature that will retain its uniqueness for many years to come.

More: Best Christmas Horror Movies

Better Watch Out (2016)

Directed by chris peckover.

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Description by Wikipedia

Better Watch Out also known as Safe Neighborhood is a 2016 Australian-American horror comedy film directed by Chris Peckover. It stars Levi Miller, Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, and Patrick Warburton.

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