Emelie

I didn't think there was anything more that could be done with the evil babysitter genre and, on reflection, I was probably right. On the other hand there were two or three clever scenes I've not seen before but nothing that had me gripping the edge of my seat. The saddest part of the movie was the sequel-begging ending. I'm sorry, but even though cast and crew gave of their best there is nothing here I want to see again. If, like me, you downloaded this for nothing, you might be entertained late-night after a few drinks but I wouldn't pay to see it and I will certainly not be awaiting the next instalment. Plus points are that the menacing moments were exactly that - menacing rather than explicit - but the whole thing has TV movie/direct-to-DVD written all over it.

Emelie's impact falls short of what was intended for it. While disturbing, it never goes full force and almost borders on tame sometimes. The motivation seemed unnecessary to me and the film lost intensity the longer it went on. Also- I'm being picky at this point!- the transitions really bugged me. But, again, it was okay.

The movie started out promising enough but once the (dodgy) motive was revealed half-way through, the logical loopholes in the plot and weaknesses overall of the script started to show and it just became rather... meh.

And there was very little pay off in the end, it was supposed to be a thrilling ending but it just didn't work at all.

I don't know what more to say really, it's not a whole lot you can say about it as it is such a simple movie and it's impossible to talk about the plot without spoiling it.

But the acting was alright (Sarah Bolger will probably go on to do bigger and better things) and the cinematography was stellar, but yeah overall it just wasn't a great movie.

Initially I thought this film was going to be great, it was unusual, and very different. The atypical babysitter under siege horror this was not, so I applaud them for twisting the original format. Unfortunately after a bright start, where you were left wondering what on Earth was going on, it just fell really flat, the plot made virtually no sense, I mean how on Earth did she know she'd end up there? What was the point in the entire charade? It makes no sense. At times I thought the script was a little tasteless to say the least, putting kids through what she did was unnecessary at times, I didn't care much for it.

So it's a real mixed bag, a great idea, but unfortunately the execution was poor, the acting was great and the production values were strong. Sarah Bolger was the best thing about it.

Too many wasted opportunities. 5/10

A well-filmed psychological thriller with horror elements interests the first two-thirds of the timing, and then slides into something standard and seen many, many times. Of the actors, only Sarah Bolger is worth noting. Children play rather themselves and are not particularly remembered. In general, a strong middle peasant. View and put on the shelf.