Summary
Babysitter Must Die is an enjoyable blend of the home invasion and slasher genres, mixed with the demonic.
Babysitter Must Die is a horror movie from director Kohl Glass who previously bought us You May Now Kill the Bride. Starring Sneaky Pete’s Riley Scott, The World’s Fastest Indian’s Kristen Marie Jensen and Punch-Drunk Love’s Nathan Stevens.
Babysitter Must Die follows Josie Jane (Scott), a college student who ditches a Christmas party for a babysitting gig looking after Sophia (Hazen), only to learn the gig isn’t going to be for too long when the family returns. Josie agrees to one more game of hide and seek with Sophia, when three unwanted guests known simply as The Intruder (Stevens), The Brute (Nic Fitzgerald) and The Woman (Melinda Yeaman) kill some and hold others captive. Josie must stay hiding in an attempt to save the family and escape alive.
Babysitter Must Die‘s story of a home invasion isn’t random; it does have a motivation that will leave the viewer questioning through the film. It might well turn into a mix of Home Alone, Better Watch Out, and The Strangers, building up set-piece moments where the babysitter must look to take on the group of criminals threatening the family. We could have seen more from the angle of what the criminals wanted, as that does seem to big a bigger chapter to the whole story, including the artwork covering the bandages the criminals wear. The story does feel fun to watch, like many of the traditional cat-and-mouse-style slashers.
Babysitter Must Die has a performance from Riley Scott that shows us the plucky outsider babysitter that has worked on her skillset to fight off burglars, which might well come off childish but is designed to show us how the teenage mind would fight back. She handles the combat well throughout the film. Nathan Stevens and Melinda Yeaman are two of the three intruders, one filled with terror, one with confidence, the other with an expectation of things being easy.
Babysitter Must Die takes the horror-thriller side of the film, revolving around the home invasion, and mixes it with another aspect, one we don’t get enough time to see, limiting the effect of just how dangerous the intruders could be. There are strong moments of tension though that will see Josie needing to sneak around the home, creating the pure silence needed.
