Better Watch Out (2016) Review – A Wickedly Mean-Spirited Holiday Treat

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are reviewing Better Watch Out.

Difficult to review without spoiling but I will do it!

Directed by Chris Peckover, this is a fantastic Christmas horror movie that is going to be a bit of a nightmare to review. Avoiding spoilers is a must so I might have to keep this fairly short.

Still, if you are looking for Christmas horror with an interesting twist, Better Watch Out is most definitely for you. It follows the story of babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) who is tasked with looking after precocious tween Luke (Levi Miller) while his parents head out to a Christmas party. The only problem is that Luke’s home is about to be invaded, placing the pair in a fight for their lives against an unknown threat.

Believe it or not, American director Peckover filmed this movie in Australia. Planning to put Better Watch Out together in South Carolina on a meagre budget, producer Brett Thornquest offered Peckover $3 million to make the horror comedy. The only catch was that they would have to film the movie in the land down under. Pretty cool, eh? Another brilliant horror movie coming by way of Australia.

Christmas home invasion horror

Needless to say, I can’t go into too much detail about the plot of Better Watch Out. Giving away spoilers would be all too easy in a movie like this. It is one of those films that lives or dies on its twist. If you have it spoiled, it will lose its impact. My fiancée and I watched this a few years ago and we didn’t entirely see it coming. When the revelation came, my enjoyment of the movie increased dramatically. It’s now one of my favourite Christmas horror movies and an annual tradition.

The general outline is that Ashley has to defend Luke from a home invasion. Luke’s friend is shot, seemingly dead in the back garden. Someone has cut the phone lines, the internet has gone, and there is a knife in the tyre of the car. This is, obviously, a drastic situation.

“Better Watch Out is one of those films that lives or dies on its twist. If you have it spoiled, it will lose its impact. When the revelation came, my enjoyment increased dramatically.”

Ashley isn’t about to take it lying down, though. She is scared but she grabs a knife and is ready to fight back. It isn’t long before something unexpected is revealed as an intruder tries to get into the house.

Self contained scares

Set almost entirely inside of one house, this is a very self contained horror that doesn’t venture too far to deliver its scares. This can sometimes be a bit of an issue. Aside from the lack of visual variation, it can lead to a lack of opportunities to shock the viewer. The environment becomes very familiar and the viewer grows accustomed to it, meaning you can, likely, recognise where the scares are going to come from.

Luckily, Better Watch Out manages to address this quite well. Creative camera shots, an interesting house layout and numerous rooms all work to avoid this problem. Tension is created by having characters hide in the attic or sneak through the garden. Action takes place in a variety of rooms.

Scenes rarely become stagnant due to never having one location as the main focal point. It’s a really decent job on Peckover’s part. He doesn’t fall victim to some of the usual issues movies like this can have. I am guessing he took a lot of hints from the 1974 classic Christmas horror hit Black Christmas in the way the space is utilised as certain elements are quite reminiscent.

A sinister antagonist

Better Watch Out is a pretty comical movie. It provokes a number of laughs throughout but in an almost sinister manner. Many of the comedy elements are actually quite dark. Our antagonist, here, is genuinely sinister and almost impossible not to hate. Creating a truly awful character for people to despise is quite a difficult thing to do.

“Our antagonist is genuinely sinister and almost impossible not to hate. Despite how much you will loathe them, it is tough not to laugh at some of the things the bad guys get up to.”

Too many horror movies default to charismatic villains. Better Watch Out absolutely nails it, though.

Despite how much you will hate them, it’s tough not to laugh at some of the things the bad guys get up to. One scene, in particular, is both shocking and hilarious. It is an homage to holiday classic Home Alone and pokes fun at that film’s sense of almost cruel violence. One of my all-time favourite Christmas horror scenes, it both answers a question I am sure many of us have had about Home Alone and coins a new phrase.

Excellent acting

Acting here is really decent. Obviously most of the focus is on our protagonist Ashley played by Olivia DeJonge. She does a really good job in this role. Not willing to simply lie down and take it, she proves to be a formidable match for our antagonists. Levi Miller is suitably smarmy as the 12-year-old Luke, almost toe curling when he is hitting on the much older Ashley.

He gets the exact type of reaction that he should out of the viewer, maybe reminding a lot of us guys of just how embarrassing we were at that age. As the movie goes on, he gets better and better. An absolutely brilliant performance that is tons of fun.

Side characters are all really good. I particularly enjoyed seeing Patrick Warburton in a brief role as Luke’s dad. Virginia Madsen, of Candyman fame, plays Luke’s mum and it’s great to see her in another horror. Ed Oxenbould has some fun moments as Luke’s friend Garrett. Aleks Mikic, as Ashley’s boyfriend Ricky, gets a few laughs in a relatively small role. All in all it is a great cast. You always seem to be able to rely on Australians to put together brilliant casts. It is rare that they don’t offer excellent performances. Everyone should be heading out there to produce horror movies. There is just so much talent to tap into.

“It is just so wickedly clever and a ton of fun. Peckover has a twisted sense of humour and goes out of his way to keep you guessing. It is a recipe for a brilliant Christmas horror.”

Cinematography is about what you would expect for a fairly low budget horror movie. The direction is really decent, however. Scenes are set up fantastically well, the house feels much larger that it actually is. Much of that is down to creative shot choices. Pacing is good and the twist is fantastic, too. There aren’t any scares but you shouldn’t expect any in a movie like this. The horror comes more from the actions of the antagonists and the situation itself.

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