Babysitter Wanted

Gosh darn, this hurts. I can't tell you about the most intriguing aspect of BABYSITTER WANTED without ruining its most pleasant surprise. What's even more painful is that I have to resist using what would be the film's stronger images to illustrate this post for the same reason. Legitimate, well-thrown curve balls are so rare in horror movies these days that I couldn't live with myself if I diminished even a fraction of this movie's novel bite. Nope. I Just won't do it. Who says I don't have any scruples? (Put down your hand Aunt John, I thought those left over enchiladas in the fridge where fair game. Time to move on).

I know what you are thinking, "A babysitter in peril movie?… been there, done that," and you're absolutely right. In fact, the beginning of BABYSITTER WANTED does just about everything in its power to prove that it has no intention at all of covering new ground. Every cliché is in place: missing college girls, ominous phone calls from a shadowy stranger, even the standard small town feckless police officer makes an appearance in the form of BILL MOSLEY. Half way in, BABYSITTER may not be impressing you with its originality, but you have to admit it certainly does a fine job of imitating its slasher forefathers right down to its butter wouldn't melt protagonist and its obviously humble budget. Midway in I was far from wowed, but seriously enjoying the cozy vapors of nostalgia.

Once the comfortable, hoary stage is set though, a genuine wild card is hurled. I'm not sure if it's 100 percent convincing, but the effect is profoundly invigorating nonetheless. Suddenly the stakes are much higher than imagined and the opportunity for a fuzzy outcome deflates triple fold. It's sort of like thinking you are stepping into a puddle and ending up waist deep in mud. Directors JONAS BARNES and MICHAEL MANASSERI deserve props for patiently allowing things to gel before dropping their hammer. Kudos is also deserved for standing back and allowing some black humor to seep through the cracks once the game board is flipped. This may not be the scariest movie ever made and it does require a bit of the old suspension of disbelief (if you don't know how to do that… learn), but once things start ticking, it delivers quality suspense at regular intervals and ends up being a lot of fun.

Heading the cast as eighteen-year-old babysitter Angie is the closer to thirty television vet SARAH THOMPSON (7TH HEAVEN, ANGEL) who makes the journey from accommodating good girl to sneering survivalist without missing a beat. An equally impressive performance is given by BRUCE THOMAS, whose acting career began playing "Mini Ash #3" in ARMY OF DARKNESS and who has the chin to prove it. This misleadingly simple, covertly aggressive production is exactly what independent horror should be about. It also makes the case that the slasher genre itself has not even begun to fulfill its full potential. All the genre really needs is filmmakers like these who are not afraid to REALLY shuffle the deck before dealing the cards.

I first saw this in 2010 on a dvd which I own.

Revisited it recently on a fast forward mode.

The only good thing about this movie is the tiny twist.

At first i thought the movie wud be standard hack and slash. A killer tying women n then cutting em for sadistic pleasures but I was so wrong. The dvd poster made it appear like a Hostel rip off.

The movie is boring at times and when the action takes place, most of the climatic scenes are shot in too much darkness that one cannot make out wots going on.

Few scenes r shot in headache inducing flickering lights.

There is an unnecessary gory scene.

The movie has the same ol trope where aft hitting the killer unconscious or when the killer is down, the victim rather than hitting or bashing more, tries to run away.

How many times will they show another trope where the last girl is trying to pass the unconscious body of the killer n suddenly the killer gets up n holds the leg of the girl.

Sarah Thompson the lead actress looks like a younger version of Vera Farmiga.

We have Bill Moseley as a cop in a tiny role.

The movie started off like When a Stranger Calls n then concluded like a lousy version of The Omen.

This movie starts off with a lot of horror clichés like fake scares, the dark stranger in the shadows, the clean cut innocent girl and the love interest, and for the first 45 minutes it goes along that way until a little twist that you kind of don't see coming. Then the movie changes tact, blood, gore, and cringe worthy scenes which for me save this film from being a less than average 'WHEN A STRANGER CALLS' type movie which I would've given it a 3.5 to a not bad but not good 6 out of 10. It was good to see Bill Moseley playing a normal role for him. So as a result like I said, I give this a 6 out of 10, only because of the plot twist and blood.

Babysitter Wanted starts off like pretty much every other babysitter in peril film you've probably already seen: a pretty, virginal high-school student takes a child-minding job in a remote house in the boondocks, where she experiences creepy noises, power outages, and mysterious phone-calls, before eventually being attacked by person or persons unknown. In short, it's about as formulaic as a horror film can get.

If you begin to bemoan this film's predictability, though, you're playing right into the hands of its makers, whose seemingly uninspired set-up exists only to catch the viewer off guard with one hell of a curve-ball halfway through: just as the film couldn't get any more predictable, writer/director Jonas Barnes pulls the metaphorical rug from under his viewers feet with an audacious plot development that has to be seen to be believed.

With his illusion of banality well and truly shattered, Barnes is finally free to explore new territory, but despite the introduction of some welcome black humour, a few well conceived moments of tension and a spot of surprisingly gruesome gore, the film never fully capitalises on its rather bonkers mid-point revelation. If only the madness had escalated exponentially from that point on rather than just kicking up a gear and staying there, I'm sure we'd have had another bona fide horror classic on our hands—after all, nothing succeeds like excess!

I pick this up on DVD because it was cheap, and judging by the cover and title I thought it was gonna be some cheap "When a Stranger Calls" rip off... Well, it wasn't. I was wrong.

After the introduction of beautiful Angie (Sarah Thompson) who's on her first year of college, movie starts out as your regular "stalk and slash" horror flick. Angie is babysitting since she needs money, and soon as the night falls, she starts receiving weird phone calls, there's strange noise and it seems that man with bad intentions is at the door. To make matters worst, kid she's suppose to watch is acting weird and he's only eating raw flesh... About first 50 minutes of the movie resolves around stalker invading home, but soon movie takes unpredictable twist and turns movie on it's head, into completely new movie. Anyone who tells you "I see that coming" is lying. There's a short reference of what might happen, but you'll never see it coming THAT WAY, trust me.

After "second movie" comes into play, BABYSITTER WANTED doesn't hold on on gore, nasty scenes (involving meat hook... anyone who's familiar with horror movies know that this thing can get nasty on screen) and chase for the rest of the movie. There are few unintentionally funny moments, and one of them is twist. I was shocked, I was laughing and I thought it pays some tribute to the old movies (era '60-'70) Very well directed with nice creepy atmosphere, looks more expensive then it actually is because of the great cinematography, fast-paced and talented cast. I hope horror movies will see more of Sarah in the future.

The only downside of the movie (for my taste) is Angie being too religious and this leads to a bad ending. It looks like director(s) couldn't decide which ending to go for, but the action scenes and the rest of the movie will make you completely forgive the bad ending.

One of the better 2009 horror flicks, specially for being low budget. Not to be missed by any true horror fan that know their stuff.