Psycho's Movie Review #113: A Babysitter's Guide To Monster Hunting (2020)

A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting is a 2020 American family horror film directed by Rachel Talalay and distributed by Netflix. The film was written by Joe Ballarini and is based on his book trilogy of the same name. It stars Tom Felton, Indya Moore, Tamara Smart and Oona Laurence.

Plot

Kelly Ferguson is a babysitter on a mission to find the child in her care who has been kidnapped by the Boogeyman on Halloween night. She discovers a secret society of children-protecting babysitters exists, as does an entire world of monsters, which she must fight.

Release/Reception

The film premiered on Netflix on October 15, 2020.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63% based on 19 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 31 out of 100 based on 4 critic reviews, indicating " generally unfavourable reviews".

My Review

Ok so I have been waiting for a monster movie that is somewhat like this however more adult and not so childish. I went into this movie fully expecting to turn it off a quarter of the way through surprisingly it was just good enough to an immature adult to grab my attention just enough to actually want to see what happens. Thus far I have not been fair to this movie in any sense, it doesn't advertise as a movie for adults but for tweens and young teens and as a movie made for that audience I feel it hit a homerun its a feelgood film full of great morals, adventure, good CGI and the most important thing up to date pop culture referencing, as well as subjects that tackle and relate to what todays tweens and teens are going through. To be honest I would love to see more films like this because its an entertaining feelgood film with no cursing, no scenes of young girls half naked to cater to a (different audience), a movie parents wont have to worry about what their child is being exposed to (unless your a parent that doesn't want their child watching lifelike monsters) the only way I see a parent not wanting their child watching this would be for religious reasons but that's just my opinion. Now without further interruption with my modern day look into smut in films (sorry it a passionate subject for me) my review for A Babysitters Guide to Monster Hunting, a tween and teen in mind film.as for the story I feel they could have went further with it, this plot was to simple for this genre and for what was promised to the audience however don't let that dissuade you its still worth the watch! The CGI and rendering was darn near perfect for this movie it wasn't to real or to fake, just perfect for the subject matter. And now for what I believe to be the one thing that will actually make this movie as successful as they believed it would be is the acting. The casting diversity is fantastic our heroine being a young black woman - her passion for STEM subjects is also incredibly important - the conflict and resolution while predictable is understandable for a movie aimed at children and the subtle sequel set ups are appreciated for sure - not to mentioned the special effects in the movie aren’t cheesy or overly realistic. Not every actor did fantastic but the ones that matter were amazing and the one that was best and even surprised me was the lead protagonist Tamara Smart (or in the film Kelly Ferguson)to me this was some of her best work she was so relatable and today I feel that's extremely important to younger viewers. Also the lead antagonist Tom Felton (or in film Grand Guignol) is perfect as always in my opinion I don't see how anyone would give this extraordinary actor a bad review. I didn’t even recognise Tom Felton - I mean damn - his acting is first class to say the least - great movie great acting - a mixture of the Afterdark Princess (a series of books I enjoyed as a child) and Insidious (the only horror movie I’ve managed to sit all the way through) sprinkle in some comedic value and you have yourself a tame-ish movie for kids to enjoy and maybe even be introduced slightly into scarier genres.

And definitely worth praise was Oona Laurence (or in film Liz LaRue) for me Oona was the most relatable character I think because she reminded me of a modern day family friendly version of Lori Petty's tank girl and being a 90s child- I was immediately attracted to this character her acting just as well was almost perfect I hope to see her in many different roles I think she will have a wide range of character ability. All in all to sum everything up this is a great family friendly teen movie and is well worth the watch and adults don't go into this thinking its anything other then a movie for kids and I believe you will enjoy it as well. Good movie, great acting, decent story in the end this movie has made my list of must watch movies.