Better Watch Out (2016)

Continuing our discussion of alternative holiday classics, let’s move on to a film that is decidedly more twisted than the last one we looked at, and one which is considerably lesser-known: 2016’s Better Watch Out.

Now unlike most everything we talk about here, where I’d start out with some summarizing, I feel the need to give a special introduction to this particular film, and try my very best to avoid spoilers. This is a film that really wants you to go in totally blind, armed only with assumptions based on the poster and genre expectations, and so I feel obliged to try and discuss the film without ever venturing into spoilers or even much innuendo. It’s a losing battle with films like this, which rely on shock and surprise, when the first thing that anyone who recommends the film is going to do is spoil everything with the intent of making it sound as interesting as it is. Unfortunately, by spoiling the ‘real’ premise for viewers, you may entice them, but you also unquestionably diminish the experience of watching it to some degree, and so I’m going to try and avoid doing so here.

The premise according to the back-of-the-box and presumably the trailer is simple: just before she moves away for good, seventeen-year-old Ashley agrees to babysit the wealthy Lerner’s twelve-year-old son one last time while they attend a Christmas party up the road. Hounded by her boyfriend, who dreads her going away, a mysterious pizza delivery driver with an even more mysterious pizza, and a particularly frisky Luke Lerner, who has chosen tonight to put the moves on the much-older Ashley before it’s too late, it looks like she’ll really have her work cut out for her. That is, until the house’s phone lines and wi-fi stop working abruptly, a stranger is glimpsed peeking in through the windows, and the front door is found to be ajar… 

The thing is, all is not quite what it seems, and it isn’t long before this holiday home invasion thriller turns into something slower, nastier, and psychologically twisted. The first thirty minutes sees the film quickly running through an entire film’s worth of tense stealth sequences, shocking deaths, twist, turns, masked invaders, and repetitive jump scares. The thing is, though, that this is all basically one giant prank on the audience, which becomes clear as the pace continues to quicken towards something of a climax, even as the runtime only begins to approach the thirty-minute mark. Everywhere you look, there are red herrings, fake-outs, and dead ends aplenty, not to mention ample foreshadowing for those who know where things are heading. And once it gets there, you better get used to that knot in your stomach, as things aren’t likely to get any easier from there. This follows in the footsteps of horror movies like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or Stephen King’s riff on the same basic plot, Misery, with more than a splash of Funny Games in there for good measure. So needless to say, this isn't exactly family-friendly fare, to the point where there are many people that I know who would be absolutely mortified if you forced them to watch.

Despite this, this film checks all the boxes that holiday horror films need to qualify as one, even if it doesn’t exactly check all the boxes you’d expect to see in a traditional Christmas film the way something like Krampus does. There’s no shortage of ironically-utilized Christmas music, lights, decorations, and ugly sweaters on display at any given time, but it’s the gruesome references to Home Alone that really seal the deal for me. Ultimately, this film leans far more towards the alternative end of the sliding scale of alternative Christmas films, and should please those who just want to see familiar holiday imagery get splattered with blood or used as makeshift weapons in a moment of panic.

What sort of emphasizes all of this is that… well, this film is fucked up. Reviewers at the time seemed to categorize this film as more adorable than anything, which I can hardly understand at all. This is a draining film, full of dread and white-knuckle tension, alongside cruel deaths and the ever-present threat of sexual violence, and it won’t be to everyone’s taste. One thing I always look out for in horror films is how effectively the filmmakers know how to use silence, and Better Watch Out passes that test with flying colors. I found myself holding my breath a lot when I first watched it, and it’s one of those films you almost regret starting because once it has you, it ain’t letting go until it’s said its piece. 

Okay, I think I’m doing good on avoiding spoilers, so let’s get as close to the flames as possible and discuss in the vaguest possible terms the villain of this piece, and the one who helps it stand out in an overcrowded sea of cynical holiday horrors. It’s clear the film's author loved writing them, and so they really run with the character, giving them lots of dialogue that makes them as hatable as they are frightening. Their performer does an incredible job of bringing them to life and selling an absurd premise, and I particularly enjoy the way they sound when they speak, which I’m sure took some work to render so convincingly. Which reminds me, the cast is mostly made up of fairly young talent, so the fact that they are able to so deftly carry this entire film is really something to take pride in.

It all leads to an ending that is wonderfully constructed, giving us the dimmest ray of hope at the end of an exhausting tale, though still refusing to silence all our doubts about where things might go next. This only further drives in that Better Watch Out is a horror film, first and foremost, and one that aims to disturb. And in that sense, it's a complete and utter success. Just make sure you go into it with an open mind and don't read too much about it.