In 2017, Netflix provided an entertaining horror comedy with The Babysitter, where a boy who clearly has a crush on his babysitter learns that she is part of a satanic cult when he catches her performing a ritual designed to grant wishes to those who participate. Like most sequels, and especially horror sequels, there is a noticeable drop-off in the overall quality of Director McG’s follow-up, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, but that doesn’t mean it’s entirely unwatchable.
The first thing that needs to be said is that nothing in this movie makes sense, and it’s not just the plot that we are talking about. Nothing from the behavior or dialogue of the characters, these kids being friends, the cellphone the main character uses, or him being able to find, let alone wear, a corduroy suit to school is believable. If you want to have a chance at enjoying this one, you have to turn your brain off almost entirely and go on along with the idea that nobody believes Cole (Judah Lewis, Demolition) when he explains why he drove a car through his house at the climax of the first film. It would seem like someone might be missing a bunch of teenagers, two police officers, and that fireman from the after-credits scene, but alas, they don’t, so he’s labeled crazy.
The other key thing to keep in mind here is that you’re watching a comedy, and it’s not even a dark one. It goes heavy on the jokes and never really bothers to convince you that half the people are as remotely interested in killing Cole as they are in having the cleverest one-liners. Brian Duffield (Underwater) wrote the first script and managed to merge the horror and comedy genres together to create something interesting, fun, and dare I say good? This one relied on a whole team of writers, and in the process lost any desire to create a plot that couldn’t have been storyboarded in half an hour over some White Claws. It is funny, however, largely thanks to the very talented cast held over from the first film and their ability to deliver in the moments they are given.
Somehow despite a longer runtime, this sequel feels rushed and had less screen time for the character ensemble that helped make the first film stand out. Truly a good bit of the charm in its predecessor had to do with the captivating performance of Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) as Bee, who gave off Elisha Cuthbert in The Girl Next Door vibes before things got all ritual/sacrifice-y. They actually use the same music as that film anytime Cole is having a serious conversation with a girl, and that can’t be a coincidence. Without Bee to carry the first half of the film with Cole, McG turns to Emily Alyn Lind (Doctor Sleep), who returns as Melanie, a close friend and potential love interest. She’s up to the task, which is to be expected from the young horror movie veteran.
Your favorite devil worshiping group of influencers are also back, composed of Max (Robbie Amell, The Flash), John (Andrew Bachelor, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before), Allison (Bella Thorne, Infamous), and Sonya (Hana Mae Lee, Pitch Perfect). All of them are terrific, especially the always shirtless Amell, who, just like in the first one, you almost root for more than Cole. To the benefit of everyone, Bachelor is given a bunch of time to do his standup material, which is fitting since they killed him off too early last time, and Thorne has the best line of the movie as soon as she falls into frame. It would be great if they could bottle the dynamic of that group and give them a better vehicle to exist within, but unfortunately their characters are always fleeting.
Ken Marino (Party Down) and Leslie Bibb (Iron Man 2) also get to return as Cole’s parents, and thankfully Melanie’s car-obsessed Dad (Chris Wylde, Space Cowboys) gets an expanded role as well. His involvement does little for the plot but provides a lot of laughs. There are a few newcomers, with the most significant being Jenna Ortega (You) as Phoebe, who is a level of crazy that Cole could only aspire to be, but obviously it’s all a wall that she’s built up to deal with a traumatic past, which features prominently in the dramatic final act.
Shane Hurlbut was the Cinematographer of the first film, and, judging from the results in this one, he had a lot to do with sculpting the stylish look of the original. He was replaced by Scott Henriksen, who along with McG, tries some different things, like slowing the action happening around Cole and Melanie as they talk to give the feeling of time slowing down when he’s with her. That’s fine, but then there is a video game fight sequence, like The Beach got a sequel, and fog. Lots and lots of fog lit by the brightest moon in history. It’s still heavy on the gore though, as if it’s trying to compensate for something.
If you were into The Babysitter, you might be a little disappointed in the plot of Killer Queen, but if you don’t think too hard and can deal with hit-or-miss pop culture references (including McG’s obsession with Terminator and some strange fascination with fish), then you can appreciate a decent ensemble comedy with the added bonus of buckets of blood. You also get to enjoy Carl McDowell bookending the film as the worst school nurse/psychiatrist imaginable, which is a win in its own right. If they do move forward with a third installment, hopefully they do the right thing and ask Brian Duffield to write it.
