Netflix tends to get a negative perception from the horror nation. To be fair, the streaming giant has loads of horror movies, shows, and documentaries while catering to all genres. As well, on occasion, Netflix produces some fantastic original horror programing. Such was the case for the sleeper hit “The Babysitter,” which was released in 2017 and catapulted Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) to the summit of new scream queen. The same team behind the original is back along with just about everyone from the cast for this follow up sequel.
After surviving his home alone horror, Cole (Judah Lewis) has reverted back to his pacifist lifestyle which is exacerbated by the fact that no one really believes what happened that night and except for his best friend Melanie, (Emily Alyn Lind) everyone in his life is ready to send him off to a school for psychiatric help. Melanie convinces Cole to just get away and join her and some friends for a long weekend on the lake. What should be a chance for Cole to clear his boggled mind and move on, turns into a new nightmare as the killer babysitters club returns from the dead. Another attempting horror/comedic romp ensues as the old crew once again try to drain Cole of some needed innocent blood to resurrect their lives, hopes and dreams.
It is a rare occasion when a sequel is so bad that it actually dilutes the glory of the original film. This is exactly what “Killer Queen” does. A few nice kills and comedic set pieces make the work enough to view once, yes just once. To suspend disbelief is welcomed when watching a popcorn fun feature, however the plot development here is laughably awful. No real explanation is given to why no one believes Cole, though his babysitter is missing along with four other locals and house has a muscle car sticking out of it with blood splattered everywhere. That is just the beginning of a storyline that has more jagged edges than a seismic reader during a catastrophic earthquake. While the original used pop up words and stop motion shots to add to the tongue in cheek fun of the original, returning director McG misplaces all of these shots along with unexplainable slow-motion frames, not to mention an inexplicable video game style fight scene.
Nothing should fall on the actors but it is to be said that leads Lewis and Lind are not as likeable as older teens as they were under parallel three years younger. Fans of the original should check out Killer Queen just to catch a few glimpses of glory that endeared us to the original, but perhaps have several drinks before and during, which obviously the production team did while developing and shooting this sorry sequel.
Scream Score: 5.5/10