Emelie (2015) - Enjoyably tense

I didn't know what to expect when I sat down to watch this psychological thriller/horror.  The description had the word 'babysitter' in the text - a word that seems to have developed a whole 'sub-genre' of its own.  Sometimes the babysitter is the bad guy, other times she's being stalked by devil-worshiping serial killers (or just the kids themselves turn out to be evil!).

I'm not sure how much I'll say about the plot in case you don't know which way it's going to go.  All I will say is that it was both enjoyable and very tense.  All actors play their parts well.  Obviously, Sarah Bolger (the titular sitter) has to hold the film up - and she does.  She's excellent all the way through.  However, sometimes when a movie has to rely on child actors, sometimes it does tend to fail.  Luckily, the oldest child of the three (who gets the bulk of the screentime) is good at what he does.

As with any thriller which contains 'life or death' situations, it's always easy for us - from the comfort of our sofas - to say what we'd do in their situation.  So there might be a few parts here and there where we may have to suspend our disbelief in order for the story to continue in its intended dramatic fashion.  Although, here I will point out that many of the decisions featured in this film are made by a child under stress, so perhaps you can give them added 'forgiveness points' when they do something that we wouldn't.

Overall, 'Emelie' isn't anything that new, but it is a good little thriller and in a world filled with streaming services which contain so many movies that you shouldn't waste your time on, if you can find this and are in the mood for some very dark takes on the subject matter of children, then this one is definitely worth your time.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that