The Babysitter: Killer Queen is a 2020 sequel to The Babysitter on Netflix. It’s the eighteenth movie in our Halloween 2021 movie challenge. The movie reunites Judah Lewis, Emily Alyn Lynd, Robbie Amell and Samara Weaving among others.
Jenna Ortega, Maximilian Acevedo, Juliocesar Chavez and Jennifer Foster join the cast. It’s directed by McG but the original writer doesn’t return. This time the writers are Dan Lagana, Brad Morris, Jimmy Warden and McG. Going from one writer to four, what could possibly go wrong?
The Babysitter: Killer Queen opens up two years after the first movie. Cole (Lewis) is attending High School with his best friend Melanie (Lynd). Nobody believes him about the blood cult, no matter how many times he mentions it. Instead, everyone, including his parents, thinks he’s crazy.
When he realises his parents are sending him to a Psychiatric school, Cole runs away, going to the lake with Melanie and others. It’s here where his nightmare from two years ago returns. It’s at the lake where betrayal wrecks Cole yet again.
Only this time, the betrayal doesn’t work and ruins a relationship from the first movie.
The Babysitter: Killer Queen is strange. I can’t decide whether I like it not. I liked the first one, I thought it was fun and clever. However, the sequel tries to be more fun and more clever but gets tied up in itself instead. Yet, there are moments I genuinely like and they show the potential the movie had.
Unfortunately, it falls into the horror sequel trap. Two of the twists in The Babysitter: Killer Queen are convoluted and requires too much coincidence to work. The first twist wouldn’t annoy me as much if there was even the slightest of set-up in the first movie.
But there’s not.
And this is where the complication starts. I didn’t hate it. Even though it suffers from sequel issues, it still pulls me in. That comes down to the acting and the directing. I have a soft spot for Robbie Amell leftover from his time on The Flash. There’s something about him playing a murderous jerk who’s also sort of lovable that I can’t hate.
Plus, it helps he’s referencing Friday the 13th again, leading to a scene similar to the franchise’s killer.
Furthermore, the inclusion of Jenna Ortega’s Phoebe helps it. She’s my favorite character in the movie. In a way, Phoebe is Cole’s mirror, except she’s confident and loves snakes. She’s also making her way around horror movies with a role in the upcoming Scream movie.
In the end, I have a complicated relationship with The Babysitter: Killer Queen. I want to be annoyed by everything that happens in it. But, there’s so much of the movie that also makes me like it. Maybe that’s what they wanted. Maybe they set out to make something that leaves their audience questioning it all.
There’s one thing I’ll say though if a third movie is in production – bring back Brian Duffield.
