10 Great Horror Movies With Terrible Concepts

A murderous, maybe demonic babysitter doesn’t sound like it has much potential.

After all, there’s a reason that the members of the often teenage profession are typically victims in horror films, or resilient final girls. The job’s association with young women means the heroines of When A Stranger Calls and Halloween have no chance against most attackers, let alone heavy-set hulking masked murderers.

But Ready or Not star Samara Weaving’s superb villainous performance in 2017’s The Babysitter, along with Charlie’s Angel director McG’s silly sense of gory humour and fast-paced style, ensures that the horror comedy turns out to be a surprise delight.

Leaning into its implausibility rather than attempting to excuse or explain away the surreal central threat, the film sacrifices realism in favour of humour, pace, and scares, and converts its monstrous eponymous guardian into an almost-unkillable demon because why not?

If Michael Myers can survive being blown up countless times, so can the babysitters he’s so fond of offing.