The Babysitter: Killer Queen is a 2020 American Horror Comedy film, directed and produced by McG, from a screenplay by McG, Dan Lagana, Brad Morris and Jimmy Warden. It is a sequel to the film The Babysitter (2017) and stars Samara Weaving, Judah Lewis, Jenna Ortega, Emily Alyn Lind, Hana Mae Lee, Andrew Bachelor, Robbie Amell and Bella Thorne.
The film was released on September 10, 2020, on Netflix.
Two years after defeating a cult led by his babysitter Bee, Cole continues to be haunted by the horrific events of that night. Everyone in his life thinks he has lost his mind since Bee and all of her friends disappeared, making Cole’s story hard to believe. He is still hopelessly smitten with his best friend and next-door neighbor Melanie – the only one who believes his story – who convinces him to forget the past and come to a party thrown at a nearby lake. But when old enemies unexpectedly return, Cole will once again have to outsmart the forces of evil and survive the night.
Previews: Trailer
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This film features examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Even Cole can’t help but crack a smile as Max enthusiastically adulates him for losing his virginity to Phoebe.
- Adults Are Useless: As usual for this sort of movie. Cole's parents don't believe him. Melanie's dad is only worried about his car. The therapist/school nurse/guidance counselor thinks even Cole having a babysitter was fictional, and Cole's dad locks his keys inside the car, giving a drugged, knocked-out Cole a chance to wake up and drive off.
- Affably Evil: Max is the most Ax-Crazy of the cultists. He's also the friendliest and enjoys having taught Cole to stand up for himself. His final moments are spent giving his respect to Cole for sleeping with Phoebe, cheerfully saying he isn't even mad.
- Attempted Rape: Cole saves Phoebe from being assaulted by a Dirty Old Man after she runs off.
- Ambition Is Evil: Notably, the three members of the Cult without any redemptive qualities or Pet the Dog moments—Melanie, Allison, and John— are explicitly stated to have made the Deal with the Devil to become a successful as an influencer, a journalist, and a rapper, respectively. Bee, who made her deal to save Phoebe has a genuine fondness for Cole and attempts to redeem herself by this sequel, Max only joined to kill people and like Bee comes to act like a Big Brother Mentor to Cole, while Sonya’s motive to join the Cult is unknown and she at least is nice to spiders and is respectful towards Bee, and both Max and Sonya have Even Evil Has Standards loathing of bullying and rapists, respectively. New recruits Diego and Jimmy are implied to have been manipulated into it by Melanie, with their motivations otherwise unknown, and it’s made clear that they care about each other as genuine friends. Melanie in particular, who comes off as the most evil of the bunch, makes mention of "trading up," and is implied to have been convinced to join the Cult with the promise of gaining a billion followers.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Melanie is making the point to Cole that all the other students are on some sort of drugs, boxes appear over their heads showing what each one's drug of choice is. Among drugs like Xanax, Ambien, glue, whiskey, and cocaine, you can quickly spot that someone's on... Flintstones Gummies.
- Asshole Victim:
- Back from the Dead: Twice over: Not only do all the first movie's cult members return from the dead to once again try and complete the ritual, they come back a second time at the climax after all being killed a second time.
- Batman Gambit: Bee admits that her plan was based on people behaving how she expected and could have gone wrong if she hadn't planned correctly.
- Big Bad: Melanie, now head of the blood cultists.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: From the moment the gas station attendant sells them to Cole, a lot of attention is placed on the fact that Cole's condoms are XL-sized and how that correlates to great sex.
- Big Good: Bee, having set up Cole and Phoebe to live and the cultists to fail.
- Blofeld Ploy: After one of the newer cultists tries to run and is disintegrated, Melanie blows up the other to scare John into line.
- Brick Joke:
- In the second scene of the film, the school counselor tells Cole that the solution to his problems is to get laid. Fast forward to the film's climax, and indeed it turns out that the way to defeat the cultists is for Cole to have sex, thus rendering him no longer "innocent" and making it impossible for them to complete the sacrifice.
- Cole claims the lotion is for his dry elbows and nothing else. Melanie later compliments him on how soft his elbows are.
- One that crosses movies. Max said in the first that he just wanted to kill people. In his flashback scene, Bee recruits him into her coven by just walking into where he works and asking him if he wants to kill people.
- The deaths of the returned cultists this time around, except for Sonya. Allison loses her head, Max gets tangled in a rope, and John's death was an accident.
- Bumbling Dad:
- Cole's father Archie, vaguely understanding his son and getting stoned, despite promising his wife he wouldn't.
- Melanie's father Juan as well, who would rather play games and get stoned with Archie than search for his daughter.
- Call-Back:
- Bee always did say the 'right girl' would appreciate Cole's weirdness...
- In the first film, Cole tries to give Max a Groin Attack, only to narrowly miss. This time, he succeeds.
- Bee offers her finger to do her and Cole's gesture just before she dies. While he refused in the first film, this time he accepts after having totally forgiven her.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes Cole when he tells them what happened during the first film. His father finally believes him when he sees Bee disintegrate.
- Chekhov's Classroom: During all the classroom scenes at the beginning of the movie, the kids are studying Faust: First Part of the Tragedy, one of the most famous works about a Deal with the Devil.
- The Chessmaster: Bee was behind the events of the night. In a twist, she was working to help save Cole and pair him with Phoebe.
- Death Equals Redemption:
- John tries to invoke this, attempting to convert to Christianity as he's literally burning from the inside out. Doesn't seem to work.
- Bee completes the Heel–Face Turn she started at the end of the first film, orchestrating the whole situation that saves Cole from the Satanists, then commits suicide through the same ritual.
- Death in the Limelight: Each of the cult members gets a brief flashback just before they are offed.
- Denser and Wackier: While the first film was already a Horror Comedy, this one goes even further to the "comedy" end of the Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror.
- Designated Girl Fight: While Cole is the main character, it's Phoebe who fights the villainess in the third act.
- Devil, but No God: The villains are all Satanists, making Satan an objective fact, but we see no corresponding evidence of a divine alternative. John attempts to consign his soul to Jesus, but nothing happens, whether because he's rejected or because Jesus simply doesn't exist as a divine entity.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Sonya is clearly disdainful of the camper who attempts to rape Phoebe.
- Evil All Along: Melanie, proving to have toyed with Cole long enough to get him alone on the boat.
- Face/Heel Double-Turn: Melanie and Bee pull their Face-Heel and Heel-Face turns in this movie.
- Face–Heel Turn: This time around, Melanie (Cole's only friend and ally from the first film) is not only a member of the cult, but its de facto leader.
- Failed a Spot Check: Cole manages to hide underneath a car with a back end being held up by a rock under one tire, fully visible. The cultists don't even bother to check it until they're leaving.
- Foreshadowing:
- The very first thing Phoebe says is "Well, I think snakes are the most misunderstood reptiles". This comes in useful when Cole keeps calm when a snake crawls onto him under the car and uses it to scare off Jimmy and Diego when they approach the car.
- Early on, while gossiping about Phoebe, Melanie wonders how heartless one has to be to kill their own parents. Later in the movie, when Melanie has been outed as the film's Big Bad, she murders her own father, just to drive home how evil she is (not that he is a saint either).
- Graceful Loser: Max realizes he drank Cole's tainted blood from no longer being "innocent". His reaction?Max: You fucking stud, Cole! I'm not even mad, bro! Respect!
- Happy Ending Override: While Bee going missing was revealed in The Stinger of the last movie, Cole's character development is completely undone by the beginning of this film. No one believes him about what happened with all the evidence missing, Melanie has practically abandoned him due to her newfound popularity—not to mention that it's revealed she got it all through selling her soul and intends to pick things up where Bee left off—he's lost every bit of confidence he gained at the end of the first film and is still harassed and bullied ad nauseam.
- Hate Sink: Upon her reveal as the main villain, Melanie stands in a jarring contrast to both her previous innocent characterization and the Laughably Evil cultists. In addition to being manipulating to Cole, she is revealed to be the de-facto leader of the new cult, and restarting the sacrifice, showing a new cruel and narcissistic personality to boot while she tries to kill Cole and Phobe. Even her extremely neglectful father (whom she also kills) isn't used as an excuse for her, as her reasons for making a Deal with the Devil was to gain followers and become a successful online influencer.
- Heel–Face Turn: Bee masterminded the whole thing not only to save Cole from the other cultists, but also to bring him and Phoebe together.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Of the non-lethal variety. Bee gave her soul over to the Devil in order to prevent Phoebe from dying of her injuries from the car crash they were in together.
- Hillbilly Horrors: Phoebe comes across a guy sitting around a fire with a banjo, playing the beginning of the famous song from Deliverance. He assures her his wife is off looking for firewood. In the middle of the desert.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Melanie brings up the book, Cole remembers he never mentioned it to her.
- It's All My Fault: Phoebe blames herself for the car crash that killed her parents, as Bee had been driving her to retrieve her stuffed bunny when they crashed into her parents' car.
- Laughably Evil: John continues to be the wisecracking comedian of the bunch and spends most of his scenes joking around. When Cole tries to make a run for it, John blocks the door by literally Hammer shuffling in front of him!
- Max's openly psychotic tendencies mixed with sincere friendliness continue to make him highly entertaining.
- Made of Iron: The undead cultists seem to have this going on. Sonia is unfazed by being run over, Allison can land from long falls in heels unscathed but shaking the ground, and Max takes a makeshift flamethrower to the face without getting burnt.
- Manchild: Juan. Seen smoking weed, playing video games, and more upset that Melanie is taking his car for a joyride than her outright absence.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Cultists (apart from Bee, who orchestrated this, and Max, who is sincerely proud of Cole and congratulates him) all have this when they discover that Cole lost his virginity and is no longer “innocent,” and therefore the blood they drank is tainted, resulting in them burning from the inside out and dying again.
- The Mountains of Illinois: Like its predecessor, the film is set in Illinois. Unlike its predecessor, which took place entirely in suburbia that easily passed for Midwestern, this film makes no effort to hide the fact that it was shot in California, with much of the film taking place on and around a lake in the desert that's just a short drive away from Cole's house.
- Never Found the Body: The reason why no one believes Cole two years on. Everyone who died in the first movie disappeared, and the only other person who saw anything was Melanie, who is implied to be keeping quiet so people don't think she is mentally ill the way they do Cole. It isn't helped by Cole's PTSD episodes. Fridge logic kicks in when you remember there was way more blood around the house than most twelve-year-olds can safely afford to lose.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Cole has two in a row, first when Melanie reveals that she’s signed the book of the Devil and subsequently slices Boom-Boom’s throat and again when the dead cult members from the first film pop up.
- Allison has one after Phoebe walks in on them threatening Cole to ask for gas and awkwardly leaves.Allison: Oh no, it’s all gonna get fucked up again!
- Parental Neglect: Juan could not be bothered to look for Melanie or Cole, assuming they'll just turn up. His Cool Car, however...
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": "Jenny"'s ignition code is 8675309.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: By the end of the film, Cole has forgiven Bee for all she’s done and is sorry to see her go back to Hell, despite the fact that by orchestrating the events of the film she got several people killed. This is slightly downpllayed by the fact that the cultists are implied to just come back every two years, but we are also shown Bee pushing Melanie's ambition, and even if we don't know if Bee outright corrupted her she is at the very least responsible for Melanie joining the cult, and so that part of the night is still on her.
- Redemption Equals Death: Bee drinks the tainted blood after saving Cole and Phoebe, being the 'last demon' who needs to go.
- Reusable Lighter Toss: Melanie throws a lit reusable lighter at the lake to ignite the trail of jet ski fuel and follow Cole and Phoebe.
- Revision: During the climax of the previous film, Cole asks Bee if he is the first kid and she gets very emotional when telling him, "No." At the time the implication is that Cole wasn't the first kid whose blood Bee used for a ritual. This movie instead reveals that Cole wasn't the first kid Bee babysat and developed a close bond with. Phoebe was. And Bee's original Deal with the Devil was to save her life. No contradiction between films, but almost certainly not what was originally intended.
- Rewatch Bonus: Quite a few scenes take on a different light after watching the whole movie. In particular, those with Melanie.
- In one scene, Melanie tries to cheer Cole up by telling him that he’s special, explicitly emphasizing that Cole is “innocent.” It’s his “innocent” blood that Melanie needs for her Deal with the Devil.
- Melanie tries to assuage Cole’s embarrassment over taking medicine by pointing out that most high schoolers are either prescribed medication themselves or are self-medicating in some way. Turns out Melanie wants Cole to feel at ease taking his pills because she planned to have Cole pass out from his medicine so she could take his blood.
- During the shot where Melanie jingles her keys at Cole, the background ominously turns red. Aside from following on her earlier The Matrix reference, it also foreshadows the Devil's machinations and Melanie's evil intentions.
- Noticeably, moments before she kills Boom-Boom, Melanie is posed in front of the houseboat's horizontal red lights in a way that she blocks them with her head, forming what almost seems to be devil's horns.
- At the store Cole tells Melanie there is no need for her to babysit him. Melanie effectively takes over his former babysitter Bee's role in this film.
- Ridiculously Potent Explosive: The jet ski goes up like the Death Star.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Big Carl the school counselor is convinced that the solution to Cole's problems is for him to get laid. He turns out to be right, but he had no way of knowing that the reason for that is that it would render Cole a tainted sacrifice.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Boom Boom, who takes a meat-hook to the throat.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The two high school Satanists decide to leave once things get hairy. Satan strikes them down for it.
- Self-Made Orphan: Melanie when she kills Juan.
- Shipper on Deck: Bee has been trying to maneuver Cole and Phoebe into a relationship with each other since before they even met.
- Shout-Out: The movie makes several pop references.
- Cole compares himself to Sarah Connor from Terminator due to nobody believing him about the killer satanic cult who tried to kill him, just like nobody believed Sarah about the killer robots from the future.
- Melanie makes a reference to The Matrix when she metaphorically says to Cole it is time to choose between the red pill or blue pill when he is about to be sent to a psychiatry high school or run away with her.
- Phoebe says her parents have a cabin in the woods.
- John at one point calls Cole the "Channing Tatum of Murder".
- When John tries to convince Melanie to stop hunting down Cole, he says they should just retreat in Wakanda.
- Mrs. Johnson nicknames Juan as Joe Exotic when she realizes he consumed weed.
- When Phoebe tells Cole how her parents died, she warns him about giving the "it's not your fault" speech like the one from Good Will Hunting
- So Proud of You: In true Max fashion, he can’t help but express how happy he is for Cole having sex even when he’s dying as a direct result of it.
- Sequel Hook: In a mid-credits scene, the book containing the Devil's Verses is still there covered in sand as pages turn by the wind.
- The cultists also mention that, if they fail the ritual, they will have to wait two years before being able to attempt it again.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: By the end of the movie, Cole has decided to stop trying to convince people about the blood cult, and just pretend that what everybody thought about him being crazy was right, and that he just got better.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Seen throughout the fight between Phoebe and Melanie. Both girls leap remarkably high, punch each other across the field, and use techniques taken directly from Capcom's Street Fighter II and The Matrix - all while moving in Bullet Time.
- There Are No Therapists: Subverted. Two years after the events of the first film Cole is going to therapy with the school counselor and taking a ton of medication. The problem is that the therapist's advice for the 16-year-old boy is literally "You Need to Get Laid".
- Titled After the Song: The movie's title is named after Queen's "Killer Queen".
- Title Drop: During the sequence where Bee, Cole, and Phoebe watch as the cultists explode from drinking tainted blood, the song playing is "Killer Queen" from Queen.
- Trailers Always Spoil:
- The trailer reveals the fact that all the cultists killed in the first film return from the dead.
- It also made it obvious that Melanie is evil now and that she's joined the cultists.
- Villainous Friendship: Max and John have a pretty close relationship for evil cultists, albeit mixed with a healthy dose of caution from John's end.
- Virgin Sacrifice: The ritual fails when the cultists drink the blood as Cole is no longer so "innocent".
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Max spends the entirety of this movie shirtless. Even the flashback depicting him working at a fast food restaurant. His name tag is attached to his pecs, somehow.
- Wham Line:
- Worthy Opponent: Cole continues to impress Max, and ends up scaring the cultists into avoiding direct confrontation by how easily he kills some of them. Max isn't even upset about the first movie. "You killed me... now I like you more!"
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Cole is a junior in high-school in this movie, making him around 16 years old. But the movie claims it has been only two years since Cole fought the cult, which would make him 14 years old at that time... despite the previous film lampshading the fact that Cole was 12 years old and therefore shouldn't still have a babysitter at his age.
