Better Watch Out

At Christmastime, 17-year-old Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is busy babysitting precocious 12-yearold Luke Lerner (Levi Miller). Luke has romantic feelings for Ashley and attempts unsuccessfully to seduce her while watching a horror movie. Strange happenings outside put Ashley on edge, but it ultimately appears to be just Luke's best friend, Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) who had stopped by to hang out. A window breaks upstairs, and they find a brick inscribed with "U leave and U die." Garrett panics and runs out the back door but is apparently shot and killed by an unknown shooter.

Shocked, Ashley and Luke run upstairs where they hide in the attic for their own safety. Ashley almost breaks her neck from a fall but Luke catches her. After they run into Luke's room and hide in his closet, a masked intruder armed with a shotgun walks into the room. Ashley recognizes the mask as one of Luke's and yanks it off the intruder only to reveal Garrett. Ashley realizes that Luke was planning to further seduce her by scaring her. Angered, Ashley calls him a psychopath and goes to leave. While at the top of the stairs, Luke smacks her in the face, causing her fall down the stairs, and be knocked unconscious.

Luke binds and gags Ashley, then forces her to play truth or dare. Ashley's boyfriend, Ricky (Aleks Mikic), arrives at the door after receiving a text message sent by Ashley earlier. When Ricky fails to find Ashley anywhere, he realizes that something is wrong. Luke tries to knock him out, but fails. After nearly killing Luke, Ricky is threatened by Garrett with a shotgun. Luke knocks him out and they tie him up beside Ashley.

While Ashley uses a shard of glass to cut away the duct tape, Luke tries to show Garrett what happens if you actually hit some- one in the head with a can of paint tied to a rope, tossed from a balcony above, based on the scene from Home Alone, but misses on the first swing. Ashley gets free and threatens Luke with a pistol. He drops the paint can and it kills Ricky. When Ashley realizes the gun is unloaded, she tries to escape to a group of carolers outside. Luke uses the brick tossed through the upstairs window to knock her out again before she can alert them.

Luke calls Ashley's previous boyfriend, Jeremy (Dacre Montgomery), and gets him to come around. Luke tells him that Ash- ley's waiting inside and wants him to write an apology letter. While Jeremy is writing it, Luke hangs him from a tree, making the apology look like a suicide note. Garrett starts to free Ashley, but is killed with the shotgun by Luke. Luke then stabs Ashley in the neck, cleans up all the mur- ders, and stages evidence to look like Jeremy committed them. Later, he goes to bed and waits for his parents' return. Luke's parents arrive and call 911 when they see the chaos. It is then revealed that Ashley stuck duct tape over the stab wound to stop the bleeding. Luke watches from his bedroom window as Ashley sticks up her middle finger before being wheeled into the ambulance truck, much to Luke's anger.

In a mid-credit scene, Luke tells his mom that he is worried about Ashley and wants to go to the hospital.

Classification: 15