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I’ll never forget when McG’s The Babysitter dropped on Netflix back in October of 2017. The movie wasn’t on my radar and then suddenly we had this delightful showcase of big personalities and absolutely wild kill sequences that also felt like a celebration of film. Not only was it an ideal release for the Halloween season that year, but it’s also proven to be highly rewatchable and that combination created enough buzz to push The Babysitter into sequel territory.

In The Babysitter: Killer Queen, we reunite with Cole (Judah Lewis) who’s still struggling to cope with being attacked by his babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving), and her demonic cult. Making matters even worse, no one even believes the massacre occurred because Bee and her friends just vanished. Two years later, the group returns while Cole is on a weekend getaway with some classmates, including his neighbor Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind). 

That brief synopsis doesn’t do Killer Queen justice whatsoever because once the blood starts flowing, McG and his team really take everything to the max. And I’m not just referring to the gore and violence; the script also incorporates even more movie references, one of the most memorable of the bunch being Lewis’ rendition of a scene from The Sure Thing. Here’s what Lewis said when asked for his favorite films that he watched for the first time because of the Babysitter movies:

“There were actually two for me. The first one, which was The Graduate, which I don’t know how I had never seen. There’s a lot of through-lines with that. And then the second one is The Sure Thing, which is a Rob Reiner, John Cusack movie. And there’s a whole scene with mine and [Jenna Ortega’s] characters which starts out with a whole Deliverance reference, but then my character goes on this whole little monologue sort of thing in order to save Phoebe, and that entire thing is this really kind of beautifully crafted homage to a scene in The Sure Thing.”

Lewis also highlighted McG’s enthusiasm for sharing his love of film with the cast and also infusing that passion into the movies:

“I think in every scene of this movie there are little nods and homages to different films, but it’ll be the kind of thing where, when we’re doing rehearsals, before we film any scene, McG’s coming up with his phone like, ‘Guys, I’ve gotta show you this!’ And it’s some scene or some little clip of some random movie that maybe only McG knows about.”

If you’d like to hear more about all of the movie references in The Babysitter: Killer Queen, some of the outrageous action set pieces, which member of the cast would actually stand a chance against this cult, and so much more, check out the full interview at the top of this article. And if you’re looking for more spoiler heavy details, we’ve got you covered in that department as well. Spoiler talk begins at the 12:25 mark!

Judah Lewis & Emily Alyn Lind:

• 00:30 - Lewis revisits working on Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jean-Marc Vallée and discusses what he learned from the experience that he still applies to his work today.
• 02:30 - Lind discusses finding out that she’d get to return for another Babysitter movie and continue Melanie’s story.
• 03:52 - The Babysitter movies are loaded with film references; what movies did Lewis and Lind watch for the first time because of these scripts; Lewis discusses nailing his The Sure Thing monologue in The Babysitter: Killer Queen.
• 06:18 - Which cult cast member can turn it on the quickest? Who’s most likely to catch them off guard with super creative improv?
• 08:31 - What does McG do behind the monitor that signals to them that he’s really loving a take?
• 09:33 - Which cast member would actually have a fighting chance against the cult?
• 12:25 - Spoilers begin! What was it like for Lind when she first found out what Melanie was up to in the sequel? Did she see it coming?

  

• 13:40 - Was she able to apply anything she saw Samara Weaving do in the first film to her work in Killer Queen?
• 14:40 - Lind discusses working with Rebecca Ferguson on Doctor Sleep.
• 16:12 - As a blood and gore pro from the first movie, what advice did Lewis have for Lind when getting more involved in that material this time around?
• 18:22 - Lewis discusses one of the wildest set pieces of film; the movie magic behind making life-like human limbs.
• 19:44 - Lind talks about the effects involved in the movie’s big finish.
• 21:04 - Lewis weighs in on what might be next for Cole.