John Hughes was a prolific filmmaker with a reputation for having his fingers on the pulse of teen culture. He was a defining voice of youth in the ‘80s and articulated the trials and tribulations of adolescence in a way that left an indelible mark on cinema with many beloved films. His blend of emotional poignancy and humor extended beyond teen movies; Hughes also gave us memorable grown-up comedies and holiday classics like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone.
Back in 2016, director Chris Peckover drew inspiration from Hughes during the creation of Better Watch Out, a mean-spirited twist on home invasion horror that navigates the social dynamics of teens against the holiday backdrop.
The plot follows 12-year-old Luke Lerner (Levi Miller) as he’s left alone for the night with babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) while his parents Robert (Patrick Warburton) and Deandra (Virginia Madsen) attend a holiday party. Harboring a longtime crush, Luke is hoping to seduce Ashley. Their quiet night of pizza and horror movie watching is interrupted first by Luke’s best friend Garrett (Ed Oxenbould), and then by a masked and armed intruder. All hell breaks loose.
Initially, Zack Kahn’s screenplay was far bleaker, and the twist didn’t come until much, much later. Peckover and Kahn reworked it, making the ramifications of the twist a more prominent aspect of the story. When reflecting on the works of John Hughes, Peckover was interested in how his universally loved characters could remain so while essentially getting away with anything. Characters like Ferris Bueller, for example, who was so affable and charming; yet when you pick apart his actions, he’s not such a nice guy after all. Or the way that John Bender comes across as a misunderstood protagonist despite the way he treats Claire in The Breakfast Club. That’s Levi. An intelligent and well-mannered boy, but the more Better Watch Out progresses, the more sociopathic and dangerous he reveals himself to be. The cast’s tremendous performances and Peckover’s balance of tone, both the brutal and the brutally funny, make it work.
It’s not hard to see how easily films like Christmas Vacation or Home Alone could fall into horror with minor shifts in tone or perspective. Without the cheeky humor or the intent to make a family film, Kevin McAllister could’ve been catastrophically traumatized by the Wet Bandits, or worse- dead. Fitting then, that Peckover pays significant tribute to the holiday classic in what’s now become the film’s most memorable kill.
“Whoa, you’re fucking Home Alone-ing him?”
Garrett aptly says what we’re all thinking when we see Levi gleefully holding a paint can from the second-floor railing, trying to position his victim, Ricky (Aleks Mikic), in line with its pendulum swing. In a wry wink to the audience, the paint strategically covers the can’s exterior to spell out “Splatter.” Garrett and Ashley plead with Levi to drop it, so Levi complies by swinging the paint can one final time toward Ricky’s head. It collides with an awful, stomach-churning crunch; bright yellow infuses with Ricky’s blood, vivid and viscous. It’s a horrible way to go.
Peckover paints (ha, see what I did there) a pretty disturbing picture of what happens when heavy paint cans smash into a person’s face even when you don’t quite see it. The sound and implication, as well as the bloody aftermath, is enough for our minds to fill in the blanks. For the curious, though, the actual science behind Kevin McAllister’s booby traps has been a source of curiosity for years now, and this article and this video make it explicitly clear the toll this “trap” takes on a human face. The Wet Bandits got off miraculously, but poor Ricky did not go gentle into the good night.
None of this is to say that Peckover set out to make a John Hughes Christmas movie with a horror twist. Still, he does strike up an interesting dialogue with Hughes’s films, namely in how they often turned what could have been despicable characters into likable leads. In Better Watch Out, Levi begins as the pleasant hero, but it’s revealed to be a polished façade for the monster beneath. The detached and gleeful way he borrows from Home Alone to slaughter his romantic competition is the perfect highlight of both Levi and the film’s tonal balance between viciously warped and comedic. If you’re looking for a great double feature, look no further.
