Movies The Babysitter [2017] The Babysitter: Killer Queen [2020] The Breakfast Club [1985] The Devil All the Time [2020] The Rage: Carrie 2 [1999] You're Next [2011]
Honestly, I usually don't have much luck with movies holding my attention, either. I was just in the mood recently, saw a bunch of movies that I saw interesting — and that I've been putting off (re)watching for ages — and thought, "Ya know what? Time to do a thing." Right now, I'm riding the wave, because I don't know when it's going to crash and beach me.
I actually watched this around the time it first dropped (I think), and I recalled really enjoying its blend of silly horror. However, I had only watched it once, and saw that there was a sequel that was just released… so I figured, "Welp, looks like it's time for a rewatch before diving into the newest entry."
Neither of the films take themselves all that seriously, but the sequel is far wackier than the original… and it really doesn't work to its benefit. Oh, the humour is still on point a lot of the time, and I enjoyed the interactions with the characters, but it felt… I dunno, a bit too slapstick at times?
The two share a lot of elements — including the core motivation — for its story. However, I feel that the former movie works a lot better in both setup and execution, while the sequel is… messy, to put it mildly.
Okay, so the plot in the first movie is that a pre-teen's babysitter is actually part of a Satanic cult. The MC pre-teen finds out, cult members find out that he saw what they were up to, and shit goes down. It's a very silly movie.
During the film, the MC has a friend that's obviously into him, but he's too infatuated with the babysitter to really notice. That ends up changing during the climax of the film, which is a pretty cute puppy love moment.
Sequel happens, and… the two aren't together for some reason. It's rather dumb that you have to backtrack that particular story arc, especially when it was abundantly clear that she was really into him in the first movie, and is still into him in the sequel… but you know what? Okay, whatever, fine.
Then it's later revealed that she's also part of the Satanic cult from the first movie and is trying to get the blood of the innocent from her friend and is out to kill him for it and excuse me what the fuck‽ ಠ▃ಠ
The reveal comes out of nowhere, with no setup, and a very weak payoff. The fact that they made her a carbon copy of the previous movie's Big Bad for no reason whatsoever — and completely killing her previous characterization — killed a lot of my enjoyment of the movie, even with the positives that are still there.
Would you believe that this is the first time that I've watched this movie? I've heard so much about it being massively influential, and my curiosity had been piqued for quite a while… but this is the time when I finally decided, "You know what? I'm gonna give this classic a try."
I like the fact that all of the characters' archetypes are explored and broken down — some better than others, I feel — even if it takes a while to get there. I think that the teacher is an unreasonable jerk-ass… but honestly, some teachers are legit like that. (I could tell you stories about some of the shit I recall from my high school days, hoo boy.)
The "problems" that I feel it has is that… honestly, some of the interactions are unreasonable and dated as shit. I'm not even talking about the use of a particular F-slur thrown about — infrequently, but still — that was used as a generic insult in those days.
No, one major gripe that I have is that Bender just can't stop being a jerk-ass to everyone. I understand that's part of his characterization, and that people aren't going to change drastically in a day, but holy fuck. Even knowing about his problems, it still doesn't make him a likable character.
I'm also not a big fan of Allison's makeover towards the end, either, along with Andy's sudden attraction to her. I mean, I get that she's the weird loner that's constantly ignored, but iirc, she doesn't explicitly say, "I wish that I could connect with more people… I just don't know how."
And yeah, I know that attraction can be unreasonable — and doubly so for hormonal teenagers — but this is one of those instances where a writer's job is harder than God's (i.e. plot threads need to have a logical follow-through, else the audience will cry foul). It just comes off as hollow Hollywood romance pairing to me.
With all that being said, though, I still enjoyed the movie more than I didn't. The issues were glaring, and I still think that some of the characters could be a bit more fleshed out — I really think that Bender and Andrew got most of the screen time in that aspect — but for what was there, I enjoyed.
Okay, so the movie (and book that it's based off of) is a bunch of separate stories that are intertwined. With some of it, it makes immediate sense as to how you get from one thread to another… but with others, you have to wait a bit before it's revealed how they link up.
While it's an interesting concept, and seeing the narratives fuse into a cohesive whole is satisfying… it also makes the story incredibly disjointed. It still makes sense, but it's messy.
Still, I liked what it was going for, even with the constant jumping around from vantage point to vantage point. I don't think that the execution was the best, but I'm also not entirely certain how much better it could have been done. Maybe I just need to grow more as a storyteller and critic myself.
You know, I first saw this movie back when it was on the premium channels, I hated it. I was already familiar with Carrie by that time, and everything about it felt like a cheap, edgy imitation of it.
Now, though? Believe it or not, I actually kinda like it.
Oh, it still has its flaws, but I'm actually on the side of the defenders that think that it's unjustly compared to the original. I know that's weird coming from the fact that it's billed as a sequel… but it actually wasn't originally developed to be one.
It was designed to be its own film, and then was changed early in production to be a Carrie sequel. It's uncertain as to just how much of the original script was retained, and just what its climax would be… but I think that the core part of the plot is still there, and that's what I like about it.
For those unfamiliar: The plot of the movie was heavily inspired by events from 1993, where a group of high school jocks were involved in a sex scandal. tl;dr They would keep track of how many "points" each one got for banging women… oh, and most of them were underage, even those they weren't.
The Rage has a group of heels that do the exact same thing… and it starts to come to the forefront when Lisa — best friend of Rachel, the main character of the film — commits suicide not fifteen minutes into the film.
Now, consider all of the scandals that have been outed over the past several years — including a particular one where a rapist was given a stupidly light sentence compared to his crimes. Yeah, this film has social commentary up the wazoo, and it's only gotten stronger and more relevant as time went on.
In my opinion, every reviewer that has said that this movie has absolutely nothing to offer compared to the 1976 classic can stuff it, because that aspect alone is enough the carry the film on its own merits.
Now, does the film still have problems? Yes. There are some character moments that I really didn't care for — returning character Sue is honestly one of the weakest parts of the film — but overall, though? Yeah, it was solid; maybe even good, if flawed.
While I still need to see the original Carrie again (it's been some years), I can totally see now how and why some people would prefer this to the original, warts and all.
In case you have no idea what this is: It starts off as a traditional slasher flick… but then, it's revealed that one of the would-be victims has had a lot of survivalist training.
In addition to having a pretty nice shake-up to the traditional slasher flick fare — and giving cinema one of the best Final Girls in all of the medium — it's also weirdly and morbidly funny in places. It never cracks any jokes, but the longer it goes on, the more of its black comedy becomes apparent.
Movies
The Babysitter [2017]
The Babysitter: Killer Queen [2020]
The Breakfast Club [1985]
The Devil All the Time [2020]
The Rage: Carrie 2 [1999]
You're Next [2011]
ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ʟɪɴᴇ
I actually watched this around the time it first dropped (I think), and I recalled really enjoying its blend of silly horror. However, I had only watched it once, and saw that there was a sequel that was just released… so I figured, "Welp, looks like it's time for a rewatch before diving into the newest entry."
Would you believe that this is the first time that I've watched this movie? I've heard so much about it being massively influential, and my curiosity had been piqued for quite a while… but this is the time when I finally decided, "You know what? I'm gonna give this classic a try."
I'm still not quite entirely certain of what to make of this movie. I think I liked it… kinda?
You know, I first saw this movie back when it was on the premium channels, I hated it. I was already familiar with Carrie by that time, and everything about it felt like a cheap, edgy imitation of it.
Now, though? Believe it or not, I actually kinda like it.
Yeah, this movie still owns.
Crazy to think I've only seen it twice now.