Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Chris Peckover, ‘Better Watch Out’ is a psychological horror that packs many twists and turns. The film’s protagonist is a 17-year-old babysitter who has to fend off a home invasion while looking after a 12-year-old boy she has babysat for a long time. While the movie begins with the one threat that she must guard herself and the boy against, things quickly change after a shocking discovery makes her realise that she has grossly underestimated the danger she is in. By the end of the movie, the audience is left shocked and reeling from the traumatic series of events that have unfolded in front of them, particularly in the context of the babysitter’s fate. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Better Watch Out Plot Synopsis
It’s Christmas time, and the atmosphere is very celebratory, but Ashley is going through a turbulent time. She is to move away to a different city, and she should be spending her time packing her bags, but when the Lerner family calls her to babysit their 12-year-old son, Luke, she cannot refuse them. She has been babysitting the boy for a long time, and she sees this as an opportunity to say goodbye to them before she leaves for good. Meanwhile, Luke has feelings for Ashley, and he is preparing to woo her. His friend, Garrett, reminds him that there is a huge age difference between them, and Ashley is not only much more attractive, but she also already has a boyfriend. Luke, however, doesn’t think that this does anything to lower his chances with her.
Ashley arrives, and Luke’s parents and Garrett leave, leaving the floor open for Luke to make his move. He opens a bottle of wine and tries to drink together, and eventually even tries to kiss her, but she brushes off his advances. At the same time, she keeps getting calls from her boyfriend, Ricky, who is not happy about the fact that she is leaving, since it means the end of their relationship. Things start to get weird as Ashley thinks someone is watching them and is trying to get inside the house. At first, Garrett appears to be the one scaring them, but later, someone throws a brick through the window with the message “U leave, U die.” As Garrett tries to run away, he is supposedly shot down.
This is where Ashley really starts to panic, but she cannot call anyone because the phone lines seem to be down. The intruder enters the house and looks for them while Luke and Ashley try to stay hidden. It is when Ashley notices that the intruder is wearing Luke’s mask that she realizes she is being pranked. It is Garrett masquerading as the intruder, and he is doing this on Luke’s behest, who thought this was how Ashley would fall in love with him. As she threatens to call his parents, Luke hits her, and she falls unconscious. When she wakes up, she is tied to the chair with duct tape. To make things worse, Luke has planned much more than this, and slowly, it dawns on Ashley that he has no intention of letting her go.
Luke Shows His True Colors to Ashley
At first, Ashley thinks that Luke wanted to use the prank to make her like him, but when he calls up her boyfriend and ex-boyfriend, it becomes clear that his intention had always been to kill her. He had planned for this, and no matter what she did or said, he wouldn’t have changed his mind. As the night wears on, she watches Luke kill Nicky, whose head is smashed by a paint can ‘Home Alone’ style, and then watches him lay a trap for her ex, Jeremy, who has no idea what’s happening in the house. The fact that Ashley has already figured out the whole thing shows just how much planning went into it. The idea was to kill Nicky and Ashley and make it look like Jeremy did it out of jealousy and anger, and then make it look like Jeremy killed himself.
For this, Luke makes Jeremy write an apology letter to Ashley, which she never gets. A hitch arrives when Garrett realises Luke’s true intentions. He was roped into the plan under the impression that they would just be pranking Ashley and make her fall for Luke. But when Nicky dies, and then Jeremy is killed, Garrett is forced to accept the reality of the situation. Ashley makes him see that Luke is simply using him to fulfill his own sadistic and violent desires. While Luke kills Jeremy, Garrett decides to free Ashley. He apologizes to her and gives her a peck on the cheek, which is when Luke comes in and shoots him. Garrett is shocked by what has just happened, while Luke berates him for touching Ashley and firing the gun.
Is Ashley Alive or Dead?
As poor Garrett dies, Ashley realises that she is next. She accepts her reality, closing her eyes as Luke sits next to her, talking about how his mother used to rock him to sleep, but no longer does. Ashley says she knows exactly why his mother stopped doing that, and then doesn’t speak anything, even as Luke implores her to say something, even if it’s just to beg for her life. When she doesn’t do that, he uses a knife to stab her in the neck and leaves. By now, enough time has passed, and Luke’s parents are on their way back, so he starts staging the scene to make it look like Jeremy committed the murders and suicide.
This keeps his attention diverted, and Ashley uses it to save herself. She uses the duct tape that had been used to shut her mouth to close the wound on her neck, in the hopes of reducing the bleeding, if not stopping it entirely. By this time, there is nothing else that she can do except wait for help. Fortunately, the Lerners show up, and when they see the bloodbath in their house, they immediately call 911. When the paramedics arrive on the scene, Ashley has lost a lot of blood, and she falls unconscious. At first, everyone thinks she is dead, but when they check her pulse, they still find a sign of life and immediately take her to the hospital.
Her situation had been so bad that Luke was convinced he’d killed her, which is why he is shocked when the paramedics shout that one victim is still alive. Luke’s mother doesn’t allow him to leave his room, but he watches Ashley being taken into the ambulance. Having received help, Ashley gains consciousness long enough to see Luke watching her from his window. To show him that he will not get away with it, she flips him a middle finger. This indicates that she has every intention of outing him and showing the world the monster that he really is.
Will Luke Get Caught?
When Luke decided to kill Ashley because she wouldn’t fall in love with him, he mapped out the entire plan to keep his hands clean enough so that no one would ever suspect him. He thought of every single detail, turning the case over and over in his mind so that the investigation would close with the conclusion that Luke had nothing to do with it. This is why he planned to involve Ricky and Jeremy in it; it would have gone according to plan had Garrett not changed his mind. He thought he had a firm hold on Garrett to make him do whatever he wanted. He never stopped to consider that the violence might be too much for his friend, and he might think about helping Ashley. So, when he shoots Garrett, he becomes angry because he’d never intended to kill him. His anger is more about Garrett messing up his plan rather than the grief of killing his own friend.
Still, he is quick on his feet and decides to make it look like Jeremy also killed Garrett. The success of Luke’s plan hinges on the fact that all the victims would be dead, robbing them of the opportunity to tell their story. Their death would leave room for only one narrative: the one created by Luke, who manipulated the evidence. At the same time, he also uses specific facts to remove himself from the scenario. His mother knows that he needs sleeping pills to fall asleep, which he probably doesn’t. His mother thinks that he sleepwalks, which he doesn’t. He only acted like it to save Garrett from getting caught for smoking pot.
He knows that because his mother thinks he sleepwalks, she balances a pencil on his door so that if he opens the door in the middle of the night, she’ll know. So, when she comes home and finds the pencil still on his door, it will appear as if the door of his room never opened and he never left. He also takes a sleeping pill, so it looks like he slept through the night, entirely unaware of the bloodbath that was unravelling downstairs. His plan almost works, but then Ashley is found to be alive, and Luke starts to panic. While he may consider himself a psychopathic mastermind, he is still a boy, and he knows that actions have consequences. He doesn’t want to be caught by his parents, and he most certainly doesn’t want to go to prison.
Why does Luke Ask to Go to the Hospital?
By this point, he has traumatized Ashley so much that she will spill all the beans and make sure he pays for what he does. The only way to stop her is to kill her, and Luke will have to improvise because she is not his captive anymore. She is in the hospital, where she will most likely have some sort of security. Still, this is the only place where he can get her because she is still weak from her wounds and will not be able to fight him off. Moreover, he is a kid, so no one will suspect that he wants to kill his babysitter. So, he asks his mom to take him to the hospital because he is worried about Ashley. Of course, this is just an excuse to be in Ashley’s vicinity, because once he has the chance, he will kill her.
The film ends on this note, not revealing whether Luke’s mom took him to the hospital and whether he got the chance to make an attempt on Ashley’s life. The uncertainty remains because, no matter how clever he is, Ashley will still have police officers ensuring she is safe. The hospital’s environment is also more unpredictable than Luke’s house, where everything was under his control. Moreover, from Luke’s mother’s perspective, he came pretty close to getting killed, so there is no way she is getting him out of her sight. At the same time, Ashley will also be on her guard, knowing that Luke will not stop until he gets her. The last time he’d caught her off guard, but this time, she is prepared to face him. All these things point towards the possibility of Luke’s lies coming to light and him getting arrested.
