'Better Watch Out' REVIEW: A twisty Christmas horror-comedy that will make you go 'WTF!&

'Better Watch Out' is directed by Chris Peckover who I've never heard of before and after seeing this film I think I might see more from this particular director later in the future. This is the latest film in the genre of horror films that are set around Christmas like films such as Gremlins (1984), Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) and Krampus (2015). I always liked those kind of horror films because Christmas is traditionally supposed to be a cheerful time and the fact that terrible things are occurring during that time makes those films all the more entertaining. I had never heard of this film until quite recently. What drew me to want to watch this film was the title alone. I didn't bother to watch any of the trailers. It's a Christmas horror film, it had a cool title and that was all it took to make me watch the film which I found online. And my gosh, what a surprise! I got more than what I thought I was getting.

'Better Watch Out' is about a girl named Ashley (played by Olivia De Jonge) who on Christmas has to babysit a kid named Luke (played by Levi Miller) who has a major crush on Ashley. After Luke's parents leave, intruders start to invade the house and Ashley and Luke have to make it through the night alive. That's all I'm going to say about the film because after seeing the film I watched the trailer and it spoils WAY too much. Please experience this film the way I did and don't watch the trailers prior to seeing this film.

As I said before the film stars Olivia DeJonge who you may have seen in M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit (2015) and I thought she was really good in that film for a child actress and I'd say she's even better here. The one actor who I praise the most in this film is by far Levi Miller who you've also seen in Pan (2015) which was trash. I won't tell you why I thought he was great in this film because it involves major spoilers, so just check it out yourself and you'll see why. Like all those Christmas horror films that I mentioned before, the film always manage to capture the atmosphere, that supposed snugly feeling of Christmas time with snow everywhere, Christmas decorations and whimsical music playing in the most ironically funny of all places in the film. This film will definitely satisfy fans of horror, specifically horror-comedies because it has the amount of gore that you'd expect in an indie horror film as well as having scenes of dark humor throughout. I wouldn't even call this film a very predictable one either as it throws major twists that made me scream 'WTF' or 'What the Hell!' at almost every 10 minutes. It's a fun ride to say the least and leaves me white knuckle intense.

The one major issue that I do have with the film is the ending. I won't spoil exactly how is plays out. The film basically does a cliche which I thought this film had the guts to not do, but ends up doing it anyway. I thought the film would have left you with more impact if I hadn't done the thing that I thought it wasn't going to do. That's all I'm going to say about the ending.

Overall, this film manages to be more original than what the IMDB synopsis leaves you to believe. The film has great performances from it's main cast members and this will surely be a great Halloween/Christmas horror film that horror fans can enjoy. If you aren't a huge fan of horror films, I'd still say check it out. It has plenty dark humor that is funny and doesn't come off as forced at all.

'Better Watch Out' gets an A-