Credit: The Babysitter: Killer Queen
The sequel and second entry to The Babysitter franchise, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, resumes the story of Cole (played by Judah Lewis), two years after the events with his babysitter Bee (played by Samara Weaving) and her friends Alison (played by Bella Thorne), Max (played by Robbie Amell), John (played by King Bach), and Sonya (played by Hana Mae Lee). Since only his best friend Melanie (played by Emily Alyn Lind), who was a witness to the events, is aware of what happened, Cole must deal with the terror of having to confront the cult. He subsequently follows Melanie on vacation to the lake as he flees from his family to avoid being admitted to a psychiatric school. Unfortunately, he soon learns that Melanie has also signed a contract with the devil and joined the demonic cult so she can acquire wealth and fame. Inevitably, the rest of the cult resurfaces, and Cole must once again fight the cult members, this time with the aid of Phoebe Atwell (played by Jenna Ortega), a new student at the school.
Credit: The Babysitter: Killer Queen
Cole’s character serves as an illustration of the struggles that teenagers face both at home and at school.
In the opening scenes of the film, Cole vividly recounts how everyone, including his family, assumes that he made up the entire bizarre story about being attacked by a demonic cult. As a consequence, he is forced to have therapy sessions with the school psychiatrist, who also serves as the school nurse. The only person Cole feels that he can confide in is Melanie, whom he incidentally has a crush on but is too timid to profess to. Furthermore, Cole is also bullied at school, as we later see him being pranked in the middle of a lesson, being bound with his own hoodie, and being ridiculed for his mental illness. Suffering from PTSD, Cole has to take anxiety medications and Melanie consoles him, reminding him that all of their peers abuse drugs like cocaine, Prozac, Xanax, and Adderall, among others. Cole’s tribulations highlight the many issues that teenagers have to contend with, and it’s no surprise that many of them fall into the traps of substance abuse and strongly oppose authority figures since they don’t think anyone understands them.
Credit: The Babysitter: Killer Queen
The sequel closely resembles the first installment in many ways, even down to the unpredictable action scenes.
The plot of the sequel is not the only constant in comparison to the first installment; the major characters remain unchanged, and they persist in conducting themselves in an incompetent, juvenile manner, from Max’s shirtless antics to the group’s general ineptitude, which is mostly dominated by pointless statements and idiotic catchphrases. Even for a black comedy horror film, there are some scenes that are difficult to understand, such as when an antelope is shot and explodes (which is not realistic at all), and in the same sequence of events, Alison is aimlessly shooting a gun while Cole and Phoebe are tugging at her legs. That’s not even mentioning the junky special effects used by McG when Max is slashed by the boat propeller. Meanwhile, John’s character gets to live longer this time round, with the sole purpose of adding to the film a few comical wisecracks that only King Bach would be cast to deliver. Possibly the only tolerable scenes in the film are the fight between Phoebe and Melanie, which parodies the rom-com action film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the addition of a karaoke and dance cutaway sequence set to The Sugarhill Gang’s song Apache.
Credit: The Babysitter: Killer Queen
The conclusion, in particular Bee’s grand revelation, leaves the plot wanting.
When Cole is lured into compliance by the cult members using Phoebe as bait, the cultists take blood from him, which is when Bee makes her dramatic entrance. At first, everyone drinks the blood—all but Bee—and their bodies blow up since Phoebe and Cole had previously had sex. After freeing Cole and Phoebe, Bee reveals that she was responsible for everything that got them there and that it was all a ploy to help them destroy the cult. This grand twist proves illogical because, as Cole questions, she was a less-than-ideal puppet master since she had no control over the murder attempts and could not guarantee that they would have sex. The Devil’s book is still present in the post-credits sequence, and the wind blows it open, suggesting that there will be a third film in the franchise, a fact that McG confirmed in September 2020, announcing that it would be the final film to conclude the franchise.
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