12 Slays of Xmas: "Better Watch Out"

Synopsis

Better Watch Out is a 2016 psychological horror film depicting 17-year-old Ashley, who is the victim of a home invasion while babysitting Luke (Levi Miller), an enigmatic, precocious, and very disturbed boy with a serious crush. The film has an approval rating of 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.5 out of 10 on IMDb.

How it relates to the field of psychiatry

For those of you following The 12 Slays of Xmas, you may have noticed that I usually don’t mention actors and actresses in my blogs. This installment is different. Before the reveal, some brief background is required. As much of the teaching curriculum at my medical school is based on horror films, one stated objective is to avoid rendering a medical opinion on public figures. If the actor or actress is to be identified, the educational benefit should clearly outweigh the potential harm. A second objective in my course(s) is to avoid the low-hanging fruit called Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). That’s because every horror film can be interpreted as a fictional case study of ASPD. If ASPD is to be a provisional diagnosis, learners are asked to present more than just the cardinal feature of the disorder and go beyond the identified character demonstrating a blatant disregard for and violation of others’ rights. With this in mind, let’s now dive into Levi Miller as well as ASPD!

What is Better Watch Out about? Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) of course! Luke blatantly disregards Ashley’s rights and safety. He doesn’t follow rules of authority figures, [spoiler alert] stages his own home invasion, and is sexually preoccupied with (and demeaning of) a teenage girl. Now, let’s go beyond the superficial character traits and get to another layer of the film.

Better Watch Out is a modern version of Peter Pan, a story that introduced the fictional character created by J. M. Barrie. Peter is a mischievous young boy from the mythical island of Neverland who never grows up. The story begins with Peter chasing his shadow into the bedroom of a teenage girl named Wendy. In summary, he doesn’t follow rules of authority figures, stages a home invasion, and is sexually preoccupied with a teenage girl. In this context, Peter chasing his shadow is metaphorically Jungian for his chasing his “dark side,” his most primitive animal impulses (e.g., sexual lust). The parallel with Better Watch Out is seamless, as Luke too is chasing his shadow when he seduces Ashley and then tries to kill her when she spurns his advances. [Spoiler alert] He even kills Garrett (Smee) for trying to free Ashley.

Identifying Levi Miller as portraying Luke Lerner is noteworthy in that a year prior, he just so happened to have played Peter Pan in Pan, a fantasy film that serves as a prequel that focuses on an alternative origin of Peter Pan.