`Babysitter Wanted' is pretty much `horror by the numbers.' It offers little that you haven't already seen before, i.e. pretty girl being stalked by... whatever madman/beastie the filmmakers desire.
However, just because it's formulaic, doesn't mean it's that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's no classic. It won't be remembered alongside 'Halloween' and 'Scream,' but, if you're into horror/teen slashers then this could give you an hour and a half's general amusement (or just under ninety minutes actually, as it's quite a short film).A girl takes a job as a babysitter and... well, let's just say things don't turn out as planned. It's a film of two halves. It does its best to lead you in one direction, only to then pull away in another (hoping you haven't already guessed what's coming - no 'spoilers' here!).
It's far from perfect. The director seems to want to use brief bursts of incidental music at every given opportunity (which reminded me of the 'strings' of noise whenever a xenomorph jumped out in James Cameron's 'Aliens'). It kind of works the first couple of times, but it's used too much and it just gets annoying after the times it happens enters double-digits. Plus, when the babysitter is alone in the house, obviously she has no one to talk to. Therefore she basically gives us viewers a running commentary of her thoughts, taking the phrase `thinking out loud' to its literalness.
If you're into horror and are easily pleased (or just very forgiving of B-movies in general) then give this one a go. All the performances are perfectly adequate and therefore it slightly raises its head above the pool of terribly generic horror offerings currently on DVD and you might not see what transpires in the second half coming.
7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that
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