A Christmastime babysitter babe must defend herself and her 12-year-old charge against a vicious home invasion, albeit from a quarter she’d least expected.
Though the IMDb categorizes this as “Comedy, Crime, Horror,” I think I missed the humor part. I found it mean-spirited, pointlessly brutal, and not even a little funny. Plus the actor playing the villain just doesn’t have the chops to bring off a menacing psycho. The film defies expectations, to be sure, but this alone does not a recommendable film make.
That said, the film eventually gels, and during the ironic final 15 minutes approaches a level of cleverness it imagines it has been maintaining all along. But this does not warrant sitting through an hour and a quarter of sadistic dreck to get there. (89 min)
Elsewhere on Metropolis:
- 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Hayao Miyazaki: new memoir reveals strange and surprising facts about the famous artist
- ‘The Hole’ by Hiroko Oyamada: David Boyd translates Oyamada’s surreal novel of transformation and isolation
- Developing a Creative Economy in Tokyo: Founder Jimi Okelana speaks on establishing ON-1 and innovative entrepreneurship in Japan
