Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter

Initially I was lured in to watching the 2020 movie "Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter" given the movie's cover, and the fact that this was a movie that I hadn't already seen.

First of all, let me just say that the movie's cover is actually not really a suitable representation of the actual movie or its contents. I was expecting more of a horror comedy from this cover, but the movie was a straight thriller, for better or worse.

The storyline told in "Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter" was actually adequately written, and writers Julie Auerbach, Kohl Glass and Kevin Tavolaro were definitely on to something here. But at the same time, then "Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter" just ultimately ended up as another run-of-the-mill-trapped-in-the-house-alone-against-multiple-homicidal-psychopaths. So effectively then "Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter" didn't really manage to stand out on its own.

The acting in the movie was adequate, taking into consideration the genre and the script. There weren't any particular stellar performances here though, in my opinion. That being said, don't mistake it for me saying that the actors and actresses weren't doing good jobs, because they were. But they just had the script and the characters working against their performances.

There wasn't much of any particular thrills or excitement to be had in "Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter", and everything seemed to be running on auto-pilot with director Kohl Glass just leaning back in the director's seat for the ride.

While I managed to sit through the entire course of the movie, I was only mildly entertained by what transpired on the screen. "Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter" was not an outstanding or memorable movie.

I am rating "Josie Jane: Kill the Babysitter" a mediocre five out of ten stars.

I'm rating this movie a 5. I want to give it higher. I really do, because I enjoyed it. It was a good movie. However, there was truthfully so much unrealized potential here, and I think that's what bothered me the most about it. I wanted it to be better. I wanted it to be more. I wanted it to be longer. I wanted the babysitter to kick more butt. I wanted her to be this unstoppable force. Maybe they will make a sequel, and maybe it will be everything that I wanted this movie to be.

Characterization needed a lot of massaging - it's not enough to say "cultists" and make them weird crazy people when we have to watch them for the next hour. There's only three of them so I should know why every one of them is willing to die for this cult or why they want out. If we don't need to know them that well, we also don't need them onscreen for 75% of the film.

Riley Scott and the character Josie are terrific: Scott has the cocky humor when it's in the script so she should get more of an opportunity to use it. There's enough of an underdog hero aesthetic and an amusing basis for her to have a near-superpower set of abilities but ultimately, she's underutilized. The setup is basically a Lovecraftian take on Die Hard so we kinda needed a lot more of that. It's cultists and a rich guy's house not Nakatomi Plaza, so we could have totally been treated to some really brutal "Home Alone" shenanigans but ultimately there just wasn't enough to work with.

Fight scenes are pretty good, the acting was decent - would have probably been a lot better if there was more to work with on the page. The premise is solid but it felt like they rushed the script.

I'd watch a sequel if they wanted to really go with it. More numerous cultists, or really eff a handful of them up by the end, Harry and Marv style, and play it for laughs. This felt too timid to be as good as it could have been. Funnier, bloodier, creepier... something.

I really wanted to like this film and give it a higher rating but I feel like it had a chance to be so much more.

The script felt like a first draft and lots more needed to be added to have made it a reao finished version. The home alone type trap was far too brief and I and iM sure many others would have loved to have seen more cultists meet their end by her ingenuity. It needed to be put into use for sure and theyd have been onto a winner. Her skills were used in a cheeseball way and the humour was only slightly hinted at , they needed to have had it real dark humour and also the whole film needed to be more gory. It really felt quite tame.

There needed to be more of the cultists so could have had more traps and kills and had the babysitter be more badass.....they tried to make her that way but it really wasn't convincing at all.

It's watchable and not terrible but it could have been fantastic.

Look, this might have been able to get 4 stars from me had the "babysitter" been 12 or 13 years old. However, watching a 20 year old running around in pig tails, talking about summer camp and merritt badges got real lame, real fast.

I say pass.