Babysitter Wanted

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!

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.

"Try to be a nice guy and that's the thanks I get!"

Babysitter Wanted is quite similar to the movie House of the Devil in many ways (though it preceded it by about a year). Both movies have a similar premise (young woman at a small college taking a rural babysitting-type job at a spooky locale because she's desperate for money), both try to scare you by slowly building tension (at least, initially) in a large, quiet house, and both have similar sources of evil as the heart of the threat to our unsuspecting heroines. 

The main difference between the two movies, though (besides a gruesome twist or two), is that House of the Devil is just better. It's more frightening, more interesting, and more memorable. That's not to say that Babysitter Wanted is bad or not worth watching. It's a sinister movie that's shot well, and I didn't find much reason to complain about the actors (though there is a faintly ridiculous monologue almost an hour into the proceedings that would have been better left out). The story is simple and violence and gore are certainly present (though it happens off-screen as often as on). The last 45 minutes or so are quite different from what comes before, so be prepared for a shift in tone. 

The final act is where the two movies really separate themselves, and that's really where I think House of the Devil completely outshines this. 

Maybe I would have appreciated Babysitter Wanted more if I hadn't seen a superior,similar movie that I couldn't help comparing it to. Give it a try if you'd like; there are far, far worse horror movies available.

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.

To suggest that this is a "rip off" of "When A Stranger Calls is ridiculous. The only reason I can imagine for people to say such a silly thing is that they didn't actually watch the movie beyond the first half hour or so. It's akin to saying Cemetery Gates ripped off Delamorte Dellamore because they're both about cemeteries. Ludicrous! Babysitter Wanted bears no resemblance to WASC or to Black Christmas (the classic 1974 horror movie that 'inspired' WASC in the first place). In fact, its unlike any horror movie I've seen before.

This is a fresh, innovative and surprising movie with a plot you will not see coming. The direction, cinematography, acting, character development, pacing, story, mystery development, action, and final scenes are all top notch and again I find myself baffled by the ratings given to movies on IMDb. They seem to be particularly out of whack in the horror genre for some strange and frustrating reason.

Anyway - the only real fault I can think of here is the music was sometimes too intrusive - but that's probably more a style issue. To me the use of loud crescendos and repetitive loud beats actually detracted from the tension or shock or horror of what was on screen rather than enhancing it. That's not to say the musical score was all bad, some of it was great. It was just something I noticed during some crucial scenes.

This movie deserves a rating of at least 7 and given that they produced such a gem of a killer thriller with buckets of horror and awesome kill scenes etc on a minimal budget it should easily get an 8. One of the best I've seen that's been made in the past few years.

DO yourself a favour and get hold of this beauty! (not for the squeamish tho!!)