Better Watch Out (2017) Review

"A thousand and one uses for duct tape."
-Luke Lerner



12-year old Luke Lerner (Levi Miller) is being babysat by his crush, Ashley (Olivia DeJonge), while his parents are at a Christmas party.  His attempts to get her to like him are interrupted by a mysterious intruder and the holiday season takes a dark turn.

Spoilers ahead!  I know this movie came out a couple of years ago, but it's really great and if you haven't seen it, go watch it.  This is one you should watch knowing nothing about it.


What Works:

Olivia DeJonge is great as our main protagonist.  She's likable and strong in the face of a despicable villain.  Ashely is an easy character to root for thanks to DeJonge's performance.

Ed Oxenbould is also really great as Luke's best friend, Garrett.  The kid is such a loser and reminds me that most middle schoolers are awful.  He's funny at times and an excellent foil to Luke.

The best part of the movie is the villain, Luke.  Levi Miller does an incredible job.  Luke sucks and he's very easy to hate.  He's the worst aspects of every entitled, male brat in existence.  He's the worst of the worst thanks to Miller's incredible performance.  I wanted to see this kid go down with every fiber of my being.  He's a truly memorable villain and the highlight of the film.

The themes of Better Watch Out are very strong.  We get four different male characters in the main plot who all like Ashley and are all pretty crappy guys.  It's a movie about female empowerment, but it's not over-the-top and in your face.  They never spell it out for you.  It's the story of a girl overcoming these s****y guys and it's awesome.  I always appreciate when movies take the subtle approach, but still make their point.

The paint-can death scene is pretty amazing.  It's definitely the most over-the-top scene of the movie, but it's also the most memorable and I'm really glad they put it in.

Finally, I really love the story of this movie.  Survival-horror is my favorite genre of movie and this is an excellent entry in that genre.  Ashley realizes she is in a horror movie very early on and takes steps to survive.  I love it.  This is my kind of movie.


What Sucks:

My only complaint with the movie is that Ashley makes a couple of dumb decisions that I found frustrating.  They mostly make sense because Ashely is only 17.  I'm not expecting her to be Rambo, but at one point she's trying to cut herself free, but stops cutting to talk to Ricky (Aleks Mikic) and that's a trope I can't stand.  Cut and talk at the same time!  It's not that hard!


Verdict:

Better Watch Out is definitely going to be a must-watch Christmas film for me.  It has a great story with excellent characters, a top-tier villain, and is simply a lot fun.  There are a couple of frustrating moments, but overall, this movie has definitely got it going on.

 9/10: Great 

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