The Babysitter

When I first saw "hand that rocks the cradle" I remember thinking this premise had been done before in a really chilling TV movie. Couldn't remember the title. For some reason I thought it was The nanny.(Haha). Well, it came back to me so here's my review of the babysitter.

I can't call this anywhere near a good movie but I liked it when I saw it mainly because the whole "stalker movie" genre had not been overdone as of yet-or maybe I was just to young to care.

At any rate-this follows a very similar premise to cradle-I guess Joanna was more a housesitter then a nanny, though I seem to remember it differently. It doesn't matter though because if you know the plot of hand that rocks the cradle you know the plot of the babysitter. For some reason, though-and maybe it was because of the then newness of the premise this TV movie scared the heck out of me.

It is more chilling then cradle, less campy. Joanna, whose name I remembered after all this time, is genuinely frightening. I wouldn't mind seeing this again mainly because this was an early stalker movie and I'd like to see if it still chilled me as much.It's hard to do a complete review as the movie's a bit of a blur to me but I do remember the story as being dark and really creepy. I don't remember any gore-if it were to come out now I'm sure it'd be laughed at by many but back then, when the premise was still new it was pretty darn good thriller material, if not a genuinely good movie. For Genuine fans of cradle though, this is a must see.

This had potential, and it actually did realize some of it. However, the dialog is hard to hear in places, and the editing is just bizarre, several times jumping from a tense moment straight to another scene without resolving anything.

My biggest objection, though, is more fundamental: for the first two-thirds or so of the movie, the fascinating "babysitter" seems to have some kind of supernatural... something. It's never clarified what, but she seems to be almost mesmerizing people on occasion; at another moment, she is unfazed by a car nearly hitting her, almost as though she is in control of the situation more than the driver is. Then in the last third or so, that "something" seems to vanish and she is just a crazy young woman.

Zimbalist is captivatingly beautiful here and seems game to bring her character to life, and the other players are all fine in their roles. However, the story just doesn't quite make sense in spots and the relationships feel hurky-jerky. A bit more time invested into the writing would have helped, as would a better job on the sound mixing and the editing. Lacking those things, I can only give this a 4, as I ended up just wondering what the point of this was. Still, if you're a fan of stalker/psycho movies, or of Shatner or Zimbalist (or anyone else here), you will probably enjoy this at least a little bit.

My TIVO is programmed to get William Shatner films since he's usually so much fun to watch in action. But he proved relatively restrained in his role.

Frankly, I wasn't expecting much from this film, perhaps a kitschy hour and a half of entertainment.

I've never seen Remingston Steele, so as soon as a young Zimbalist comes on the screen I could no help thinking "wow, who is that?" She is very convincing in the role of an enigmatic housekeeper who works her way into the family of Shatner and Duke-Astin.

The film begins at a slow pace, but has the saving grace of not falling into the typical and predictable TV movie of the week plot.

The acting is very good all around, as well as Zimbalist, Duke-Astin and John Houseman turn in good performances.

I was surprised to see on IMDb after watching the film that it was directed by Peter Medak. I greatly respect Medak for his work in _The Changeling_ (1980), _The Krays_ (1990) and _Romeo is Bleeding_ (1993), all non-mainstream highly-respected (nearly cult) films. It is really surprising that Medak seems to weave between these films and TV sitcoms, movies of the week, and so on. His influence in creating the proper mood is, in retrospect, dominant in the film.

As someone else mentioned, the sound quality is quite bad and it is at times difficult to make out the dialog.

Well, I bought this movie for the fact that Stephanie Zimbalist (Laura Holt of Remington Steele) played a leading role in it. Everything I had seen of hers was pretty good so far, and I'm a Remington addict, so I figured this would be good as well. I was mistaken. It wasn't exactly garbage. If written differently, it could've been a really good movie. The category in which it's categorized is all wrong as well. This is definitely not a suspense or horror film. There was no blood or gore, which is what I describe a horror film as to be. As far as suspenseful goes, it almost meets that category, as I said, if written better. My opinion, the writing stunk. The storyline could've been extremely better. It's definitely not a movie you'd view more than once, IMO.

Acting and story are tops. The babysitter is an otherworldly-looking, eerie kind of character. The 12-year-old, upon first seeing her, asks, "Are you real?" She looks like she's stepped out of a dream,mesmerizing, hypnotizing. And she works her way into this family of three--mother father daughter--wealthy, living in a large house on the water outside of Seattle, and she wreaks her awful havoc. The story moves along, and your eyes are glued to the screen, as you watch the whole thing work its way to its conclusion. The females in this movie are impressive--that would be the mother, daughter and babysitter. And of course, William Shatner as the father/husband--the ultimate likable good-guy. Skilled movie makers and actors (and writers) put this thing together and they came out with a polished, entertaining product.