Three years ago, the Netflix horror-comedy The Babysitter came out of nowhere to become a fun little diversion during the Halloween season (and a better-than-expected success for the streaming platform). And though the door was left wide open for a sequel, it took almost two years for production to get underway on The Babysitter: Killer Queen, an all-out, over-the-top follow-up to the blood-soaked mayhem that gave Samara Weaving her first starring role and brought back the good ol’-fashioned gorefest as entertainment.
Picking up two years after the events of the first film, Killer Queen begins with baby-faced Cole (Judah Lewis) still getting bullied in school—only more so now, since no one believes that a blood cult led by his satanic babysitter was responsible for the destructive mayhem that left his house in rubble at the end of the first film. On top of that, he’s forced to go through counseling with his clueless guidance counselor (Carl McDowell), and his crush Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) has a hunky new boyfriend.
Still, Cole seems to hit it off at least somewhat with new girl Phoebe (Jenny Ortega), and, yes, Melanie continues to call Cole her best friend and even invites him out to the lake for a weekend with the gang. What could go wrong? Well, plenty, obviously.
It doesn’t take long for the original baddies to get back into the picture (nevermind the fact that they were all killed in any number of delightful ways in the first film). Max (Robbie Amell), John (Andrew Bachelor), Sonya (Hana Mae Lee), and Allison (Bella Thorne) are back and good as new, hoping to finally finish off Cole and be released from their two-year-long purgatory as un-dead satanic disciples.
Lest there be any worry, the blood flows (er, gushes) early and often. Where else could you possibly get a silly-string-fueled face-melting, death by taxidermied deer, and a grisly bit of carnage that gives new meaning to being stuck between a rock and a hard place… all within a ten-minute span?
The screenplay-by-committee team, which includes McG, does display plenty of imagination, and even though some of the pop culture references are inexplicably more dated than disco, Killer Queen wasn’t made for anything other than getting a bunch of friends together for a night of stupidity and bloody good fun.
Director McG picks up right where he left off, eschewing any thought that he’s making a horror film and instead going straight for the comedy jugular. It’s the blackest of black humor, to be sure, but this thing is still far more funny than it is even remotely scary. The bloodletting is so over-the-top that it becomes even a spoof of itself—a ‘so bad it’s good’ kind of gonzo entertainment. If you loved (or even remotely enjoyed) The Babysitter, well—Killer Queen should more than satisfy your bloodlust.
Rating
3/5 stars