- Directed by Chris Peckover
- Written by Zack Kahn, Chris Peckover
- Stars Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrlafPdlXm4
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
It’s a home invasion story with lots of twists and surprises. The too-smart twelve-year-old is hard to believe, but if you can get past that, it’s pretty entertaining, simply because it doesn’t go where you expect.
Synopsis
Luke has a crush on his babysitter, Ashley. His parents are… Weird. Ashley is moving to Pittsburgh in a few days. Luke’s friend Garrett is in the bathroom stealing medications. Ashley is terrified of spiders, but Luke catches it and releases it outside.
The parents leave, and Ashley and Luke turn on a horror movie, which is expressly against the rules. The pizza delivery guy arrives, but they didn’t order anything. Still, they take the pizza.
Ashley gets freaked out by the horror movie and a phone call with no one talking. The doors won’t stay shut. Garrett shows up again, but then there’s a window breaking upstairs. They find a brick with a message on it “U Leave U Die.” The phones all suddenly stop working. Ashley’s car tires have been slashed.
Garrett runs off, but it looks like something got him outside. There’s the usual stuff with home intruders, hiding, and chasing. Luke finds his parents’ gun, but it all turns out to be fake. It’s Garrett roaming around the house in a mask with a shotgun. These kids are weird.
Ashley says she’s calling his parents, so Luke knocks her down the stairs instead. Ashley wakes up duct-taped to a chair. He tells Ashley that if she screams, he’s going to shoot her. He pulls out some mystery vial of drugs and makes her drink it.
Ashley’s boyfriend Ricky comes to the door. He pushes his way in and searches the house for her. Luke whacks him with a baseball bat— twice. They mop up the blood and evidence. Ricky ends up in a chair next to Ashley. Turns out Luke texted Ricky and invited him. He wanted him there. He also calls Jeremy, her old boyfriend and invites him over as well.
Luke re-enacts the paint can scene from Home Alone with Ricky. Ashley gets out and runs to find some carolers, but Luke hits her first with a brick. Luke keeps saying he has a plan to get away with all this, but he hasn’t even tried to clean the paint that splattered everywhere.
Ex-boyfriend Jeremy shows up and trips over something suspiciously pointy located below a window in the backyard. Luke intercepts him and has him write an “apology” note to Ashley. Then he hangs Jeremy from a tree. He’s arranged it to look like Jeremy went crazy and did all this.
Ashley talks Garrett into releasing her, but instead, Luke shoots him. Ashley refuses to talk to Luke any more, so he stabs her. He then goes around the house and puts Jeremy’s fingerprints on everything and otherwise cleaning up anything that would indicate he was the killer.
The parents come home, and the screaming starts. Soon, the police arrive. There’s a shout from downstairs, “This one’s still alive!” It’s Ashley, who gives Luke the finger as she’s loaded into the ambulance…
Commentary
The trailer had me expecting a more violent version of “Home Alone.” The beginning had me thinking it was a ripoff of “The Babysitter (2017).”
I don’t think the people who wrote this film ever met a real twelve year old. Drugs, guns, drinking, and of course, kidnapping, aren’t something suburban twelve-year-olds know much about. If Luke and Garrett had been 17 this would have made so much more sense, but then it would have been a lot creepier to have a babysitter at that age. Levi Miller does well playing a little psychopath, but I just couldn’t get past how knowledgeable he was about everything at his age.
If you can manage to get past the ridiculous impossibility of it all, it’s fun to watch to see if he’ll get away with it.