While the Children Sleep

This wasn't too bad a movie about a psychotic babysitter who moves in with a family to infiltrate herself with bad intentions. If you have seen other similar movies, you can probably figure out the plot and what will happen along the way, though the performances are good, especially the leads. It delivers some good laughs and shocks but overall wasn't too impressive.

** out of ****

this movie delivers. the best is when the awkward teenage neighbor tries to bike away from the babysitter and in the background looks like he's never been anywhere near a bike in his life as he attempts not to fall off.

but this movie doesn't stop there, when less than 5 minutes later it delivers a scene of nothing but an arm reaching through a fence and into a cooler pulling out a beer.

stereotypical grilling dads, several plot lines that go nowhere, and a former seaQuest actress with a bluetooth cell phone all add up to making this the perfect Saturday night at home.

If you have plenty of time to waste ... it's OK. It moves at a good pace but to pull this movie off it would need to be a little longer with a little more background on the sitter.

The acting is OK. Mariana Klaveno as the sitter does the best job and is the most believable.

William R. Moses played a pretty good part as the husband.

Gail O'Grady, as the wife, had a weak part and the reasons for her going back to work were not developed.

The ending is sort of silly. Like most of these sitter movies ... there are parts that are interesting ... but overall it leaves you wondering why you spent the time.

Although the plot was a bit sappy at times, and VERY rushed at the end, as if the director had run out of his alloted time and needed to hurry up and finish the story, overall it was pretty good for the Made-For-Backwoods-Cable-TV genre.

However, the actress who played the babysitter, Mariana Klaveno, was very good! I hope to see more of her around in movie-land. The music was also well done, getting every possible chill out of the dah-DUH-dah-DUH (think "JAWS") type music-based tension build-ups.

I don't think I'd want to watch "While the Children Sleep" again, but if I did, it would be to focus on the performance of the talented Klaveno.

Here's an amusingly derivative psycho-thriller that acts as if all the other psychological thrillers in this genre don't exist. The template for this one, surprise surprise, is THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, but it doesn't even manage to be the first film about a psychotic babysitter – THE SITTER was already made at the beginning of the sub-genre, back in 1991, and Alicia Silverstone had a stab as a babysitter/temptress later in that decade.

This turns out to be completely predictable and routine, although it is more watchable than some dogs the genre throws up. Russell Mulcahy, once one of Hollywood's hottest directors after HIGHLANDER, invests this with a little more style than the usual journeyman types and the pacing is pretty much spot on. Horror fans are advised to ignore the routine script and enjoy the silly murder sequences, which are quite strong for a television movie. Garden murders, bathtub murders, a staircase set-piece inspired by THE OMEN and a decent wheelchair stunt; it's all present here, as well as the over-the-top climax complete with pulled-out phone cords, duct-taped victims, carving knives and the like.

None of the characters elicit much sympathy, particularly in the case of Gail O'Grady who comes across as a bit of a bimbo as the mother. It's incredible how nobody ever suspects the angelic babysitter and becomes a bit irritating. William Moses, once the young upstanding hero of PERRY MASON, is bland as the nice-guy father. The sitter herself, Mariana Klaveno, is hopeless when she tries to do menacing, so the filmmakers wisely focus on her sexuality instead and I found her fairly effective as the teenage temptress. Still, this definitely falls into the so-bad-it's-good category, so only fans of bad movies need bother applying.