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 Better Watch Out 

Rate this film:
A 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
B 50%  50%  [ 2 ]
C 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
D 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
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Total votes : 4

 Better Watch Out 
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Post Better Watch Out
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1. The Lost City of Z - 2. A Cure for Wellness - 3. Phantom Thread - 4. T2 Trainspotting - 5. Detroit - 6. Good Time - 7. The Beguiled - 8. The Florida Project - 9. Logan and 10. Molly's Game


Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:07 pm
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
This was fantastic. It's darkly hilarious, incredibly unpredictable and suspenseful, and the young cast is uniformly excellent. I actually watched it twice in one weekend. Such a fun time. A-


Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:40 am
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
This was ok, but what really brought it down for me is that I didn't like the twist they decide to do half way through. I just didn't
Spoiler: show
buy the kid as the villain and what makes it worse is that weird, wimpy kid from The Visit is his sidekick
. I liked the lead girl though and at least it wasn't boring.

C


Last edited by Dil on Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:33 am, edited 1 time in total.



Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:06 pm
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Wallflower
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
I know it's a review thread but you should still post a spoiler warning as a courtesy. I'd hate for the movie to be ruined for someone who hasn't seen it and is just checking to see what fellow members thought and if it's worth watching. It's best not knowing where the movie is headed.

I'm so glad I avoided the trailers because I didn't see the twist coming. I'd been told to avoid watching them and I've been telling everyone I've recommended it to to do the same. I thought this was fantastic. So well-done and entertaining. A new Christmas classic if you like holiday horror movies. The kid in the movie is terrific. I'll be buying the Blu-ray when it's out. A shame it didn't get a wide theatrical release. It really deserved one.

Better Watch Out is a gem!


9/10 (A-)


Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:16 am
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
A decent, rather clever yuletide horror romp from Australia (though dressed up as an American suburbia, with accents hidden). It plays as a lampoon of Home Alone: what if Kevin's burglar-terrorizing schemes and traps resulted in more than oh-right-in-the-groin! slapstick reaction shots? What if Kevin was, in fact, a psychopath? And this conceit proves fairly entertaining and macabre for 85 minutes. The acting is uniformly solid, too; Olivia DeJonge is a fetching and resourceful heroine, and Levi Miller (Joe Wright's Pan, remember?) plays toxic adolescence loathsomely well. The film has a bit of a glib, self-satisfied tone, though, so it is hard to invest in it enough for it to be truly suspenseful.

B

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Mon Dec 25, 2017 1:41 am
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
This has been a strong year for horror, IMO. I hope enough people see this before the KJ awards. And I hope I'll get to see Tragedy Girls before then.


Mon Dec 25, 2017 3:22 am
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
So is this a 2016 or 2017 film? You've added 2016 in the title but I see you added it to your 2017 Films in Review...

It opened in the US and Australia in 2017, so for me it's a 2017 film. Opening in one festival in 2016 doesn't mean shit.


Mon Dec 25, 2017 3:34 am
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
I put 2016 in the thread title because it is listed as such on the IMDb and Wikipedia, even if it is only because of a festival screening. I consider it a 2017 film for myself because I go by U.S. release dates. But I now realize I can remove it because it seems there is no other Better Watch Out to differentiate it from. Not sure why I thought there was at the time.

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Mon Dec 25, 2017 3:41 am
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Post Re: Better Watch Out
Yeah definitely a 2017 film.


Mon Dec 25, 2017 4:00 am
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Post 
Better Watch Out

Your reviews got me interested so I just watched it. Gotta say, that's a great film. The evil in me wanted him to get away with it, but that final middle finger was worth him being caught. Awesome stuff. I liked how you didn't know what was going to happen next. How much it would escalate. I would have liked it to have gotten a bit more crude in the "truth or dare" segment, and to have shown the paint tin death and boob grope. But apart from that it was a lot of fun. The cast is uniformly good (third time's the charm!) but it's Levi Miller that makes it. A horrible, cowardly little shit, but damn he's played to perfection. Olivia De Jonge isn't even hot so I think they slipped up with her casting. Should have cast someone like a young Elisha Cuthbert.

B+


Mon Dec 25, 2017 5:12 am
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Post Re: Better Watch Out
Olivia De Jonge isn't HOT, but she's very cute and good in the film. Plus it's cool that her and Ed Oxenbould reunited in a movie after The Visit.


Mon Dec 25, 2017 2:36 pm
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Post Re: Better Watch Out
She's ok. She gives a standard-fare horror performance.


Mon Dec 25, 2017 7:35 pm
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Post Re: Better Watch Out (2016)
Magic Mike wrote:
I hope enough people see this before the KJ awards.


Not sure those will be held this year.


Mon Dec 25, 2017 7:53 pm
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Post Re: Better Watch Out
Saw this last year and watched it again. I'm surprised I didn't notice a thread for it.

*SPOILERS AHEAD* I don't typically advocate for spoiler warnings, but there are lots of little moments I wouldn't want someone to read about before seeing.

As Home Alone became a family Christmas classic, so too should Better Watch Out for the horror Christmas subgenre (which is filling fast in the last number of years). The elevator pitch for it was obviously "Imagine if Kevin McCallister was a psychopath and also the villain". I also assume the idea is at least inspired by the videos that came out a few years ago where Macaulay Culkin played a grown-up Kevin with a lot of issues that needed to be resolved with his two-time captors.

As a straight, home invasion style horror film, Better Watch Out wouldn't have been nearly as effective. But once it becomes clear that Levi Miller's Luke is the mastermind behind the insanity, the movie kicks into gear and rarely lets up. It's bolstered by a number of shocking moments that pack the best punch upon first viewing (although the movie itself is still enjoyable on repeat watches). I'm a bit disappointed it isn't more well-known, but I can see this achieving a cult following at some point. It's too good to be forgotten.

I especially love the little realistic touches. One of my favorite moments is when he whacks Ricky with the baseball bat and celebrates his efforts, only to be taken down because his teenage swing of the bat didn't have nearly the impact he thought it did.

All in all, Better Watch Out is probably one of the strongest holiday horror flicks on the go. If the sugary sweet Christmas classics aren't your thing, give this one a watch.

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Thu Dec 06, 2018 2:22 pm
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Post Re: Better Watch Out
Magic Mike wrote:
Olivia De Jonge isn't HOT, but she's very cute and good in the film. Plus it's cool that her and Ed Oxenbould reunited in a movie after The Visit.


She's good in this, as good as you'd expect or want. But I think she's more of someone that a teen or preteen would think is hot, which makes the casting effective.

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Thu Dec 06, 2018 2:23 pm
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Post Re: Better Watch Out
What garbage. I really don't understand the good reviews for this...

Things are hardly amazing before the "twist" but once it occurs this becomes a tedious, endless slog that seems like it came from the mind of a couple of 12 year olds (with no adult input along the way to the final product).

These movies where we spend so much time with characters tied to chairs trying to escape only to then get tied to more chairs once they do escape (plus other characters tied to chairs, woo!)--pick a new topic. Plus, all the horrible monologues while various people are tied up (rinse, repeat).

All the details of this movie make no sense, which I understand is true of *most* horror movies, but if they're going to make no sense while the rest of the movie actively shits the bed then there's simply nothing here for me :thumbsup:


Sun Dec 15, 2019 7:30 pm
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