Naman Shrestha
Helmed by Chris Peckover, ‘Better Watch Out’ follows Ashley, a 17-year-old girl who agrees to babysit a 12-year-old boy named Luke for the Lerners during the most beautiful time of the year at their quiet suburban house. Expecting a regular night with the preteen boy, the babysitter is taken by surprise when the holiday night turns into something dangerous as a group of intruders breaks into the house and begins terrorizing the inhabitants.
However, while she tries to defend herself and Luke from life-threatening attacks, she realizes that it is not a regular home invasion. Formerly titled ‘Safe Neighborhood,’ the horror-invasion comedy movie features compelling performances from Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic, Dacre Montgomery, and Patrick Warburton. The teen-powered thrill ride is set primarily within the four walls of the Lerner family’s suburban residence, with the setting serving as an additional character in the supernatural thriller.
Better Watch Out Filming Locations
Despite being set in the northern US, ‘Better Watch Out’ was filmed in its entirety in Australia, especially in and around Sydney. The original plan was to shoot the movie in South Carolina for $500,000, but the director, Chris Peckover, chose Australia as he was offered a budget of $3 million by an Australian producer named Brett Thornquest. According to reports, principal photography for the horror thriller commenced in January 2016 and went on for several weeks before wrapping up in February of the same year.
Sydney, Australia
Though set in the northern American winter, ‘Better Watch Out’ was actually filmed on a different continent altogether. The cast and crew traveled all the way to Australia to tape the film. Filming particularly took place in the capital of New South Wales, Sydney. The production team constructed a custom set at Disney Studios at Building 16, 38 Driver Avenue in Moore Park. The world-class facility proved to be an ideal shooting site as it provided a tightly controlled environment, allowing the team members to fully realize the narrative’s atmosphere of mounting dread. To further complement the authenticity of the setting, the house was covered with fake snow.
One of the elements that stand out in the film is the unusual height of the doorknobs in the residence of the Lerners. In an AMA session on Reddit, writer/director Chris Peckover shared some insight on why they had no option but to keep the 1.44 m (4’9″)-high knobs, a typical marker of traditional homes in Australia. Expressing his frustration, he stated, “In Australia, all the doorknobs are that high. We were so low budget and so run and gun, that we started shooting before the full set had been built. Day 1 was Liv and Levi on the couch watching the horror movie, and they had just put in the front door an hour before we started shooting. Not directly in the scene, but in the background. By the time I noticed the high doorknob front door, we had already shot a full day, so for continuity reasons we were stuck with it.”
During the course of filming, the team ran into a hiccup when they had to shoot a sequence with Ashley covered in spiders. Since they had already exhausted a major chunk of the budget in their first week, Peckover feared he would have to trash the critical scene entirely, as employing CGI was going to be expensive. He was dejected at the constraint, but Olivia DeJonge truly stepped up and saved his vision. Dubbing it as one of the highlights of the production, he shared, “I told her, and she said ‘Let’s just do it for real.’ I remember staring at her, not believing I’d just heard her right, because Liv is a hardcore arachnophobe. “If I can save the movie that much money, let’s just do it.” So when you see the scene – that ain’t CGI.”
Marvelling at the commitment showcased by Olivia as an actor, Peckover said, “She went through five takes hanging upside down with Huntsman spiders on her face and body. Look up ‘Huntsman spider’ if you want to appreciate how horrifying an experience this must’ve been for Liv. But that’s just how Liv is. Generous, ready for anything, and ballsy.” When discussing the lows, the filmmaker revealed that one of the cast or crew members created a ruckus on set, thereby disrupting the overall vibe. He said, “I won’t say who, but near the end of the shoot someone with a really important job threw a temper tantrum, screaming in front of the cast, crew, everybody about how many awards they’d won and how much more experience they had than me and how much of an idiot I was when I asked them to change something.
Peckover continued, “It was too late to fire him, but in hindsight I wish I had much sooner. He’d been bullying crew members for the whole shoot, just making so many people miserable for the entire production. I learned a big lesson: if someone’s giving you signs early on that they’re a bad apple, let them go. It won’t get better. Making a movie with millions of someone else’s money is already grey-hair-inducing enough as it is. There are too many professional talented people out there to deal with trouble makers. That’s not just crew members, that’s actors too.” All in all, despite the highs and lows, the unwavering dedication of the cast and crew ensured that everything turned out smoothly in the end.
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