Since the entirety of October is officially Halloween this year (shut up, you!), we at Psycho Drive-In have decided to attempt to fill the month with thirty-one recommendations for horror-related movies, comics, books, TV shows, toys, games, and everything in-between. It’s gonna be a grab-bag of goodies we feel you should be exposed to, whether you like it or not! But don’t expect your standard suggestions for Halloween fun, we’re digging into some stuff that we love in the hopes that you might make this October a little bit weirder than usual.
Weirder in a good way. Not like what’s going on outside in the hellscape of 2020.
The first time I saw Samara Weaving was when she showed up as an Aussie backpacker in the final three episodes of Ash vs Evil Dead Season One. There was a lot of blood and screaming, as there is, and she was distractingly hot, but I had no clue that a horror/action powerhouse was making her American debut. After a role in the monster comedy Monster Trucks (2016), she got good and bloody in the horror-action-comedy Mayhem (2017), and then got creepy in the TV mini-series Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018), then got ultraviolent in Guns Akimbo (2019), then got excellent in Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020), and will be playing Scarlett in next year’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.
She’s also done a lot of non-horror-action-comedy, but this is 31 Days of Halloween, baby! So I want to talk about the one-two-punch of The Babysitter (2017) and Ready or Not (2019).
The Babysitter is a Netflix original movie written by Brian Duffield and directed by McG (yes, it is 2020 and he still goes by McG). Weaving plays Bee, the titular babysitter of pre-teen nerd, Cole (Judah Lewis) – a kid who’s really a little too old for a babysitter. But if Samara Weaving was my babysitter, I’d resist growing up too. Cole gets picked on by neighborhood bullies and just overall lacks any self-confidence. He doesn’t even realize that the little girl across the street, Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind), has a bit of a crush on him.
Cole’s parents, played by Leslie Bibb and the always welcome Ken Marino, go off for a “romantic” night away, which means Bee is staying overnight. When Melanie dares him to stay up late to see what Bee gets up to after he’s in bed – sex, probably, thinks Melanie – Cole’s entire world turns upside down in one blood-splattered, throat-splitting, cop-killing, spider-infested fireball of a night.
Yeah, Bee’s the leader of a Satanic cult and they meet in Cole’s house after he’s been drugged and tucked away in bed.
As it turns out, Bee used to lack confidence just like Cole, but thanks to a handy dandy deal with the devil, she now gets whatever she wants. All she has to do is occasionally sacrifice an innocent, recite a verse or two from an ancient book, and eventually skip town when the law gets a little too close for comfort. Which leads us to the nightmarishly gruesome fun that makes The Babysitter one of the most entertaining horror films in years.
In fact, one might assert that the only horror film in recent memory to match it and maybe even surpass it in good old devil worshipping fun, is another Satanic Samara Weaving joint: Ready or Not.
With an insanely clever script by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, and outstanding direction by two of the three-man film collective known as Radio Silence Productions, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett – seriously, if you haven’t seen their short films or contributions to V/H/S and Southbound, or their horror film Devil’s Due, then you really need to get on that. Oh, and they’re also directing Scream 5 – plus a bad-to-the-bone kick-ass performance by Weaving, Ready or Not was one of the most surprising horror hits of the year.
When Grace (Weaving) marries into the insanely rich game manufacturing Le Domas family, she learns that the family fortune was built with the help of a man named “Le Bail” in exchange for observing a strange tradition. When someone joins the family, everyone gathers and the new person draws a card from Le Bail’s puzzle box, then the family plays whatever game is on the card. Unfortunately, Grace pulls “Hide and Seek” from the box, a card that hasn’t been pulled in thirty years. A card that means the family must hunt and kill the newcomer before dawn.
All for the glory of Satan.
Yes, we once again have a Satanic cult to deal with, only this time, Weaving is the one on the run in a locked down mansion while the cult hunts her with archaic weapons. The family dynamics are what really gets the movie going. As soon as characters are introduced, we get all the family drama, bickering, and back-stabbing that we wouldn’t see again until last year’s Knives Out. There are accidental murders, refusals to cooperate, head starts, near escapes, and, let’s not forget, Satanic rituals.
And it’s all so goddamned clever, fun, and entertaining that you’ll be on the edge of your seat whenever you’re not laughing out loud. And it’s Weaving who really makes it all work. In the course of one night, she goes from a fairly normal newlywed to a battle-tested, world-weary action star.
Basically, she’s all of us in 2020.
