The Nanny's Night (2021) - It tried

'The Nanny's Night' is a film made in Spain where the actors all speak English.  It's rare that I'd start a review with that fact, but I feel it's kind of pertinent because clearly English isn't the actors' native tongue, therefore not only do the lines come across as a bit 'off' and 'stilted,' but at times I struggled to even hear what they were saying (I guess that's where subtitles really come in handy).

A young woman takes a job as a nanny for the night to an - almost teenage - girl (a premise which made me wonder as the girl is clearly old enough to look after herself, yet she requires bedtimes stories etc, making her out to be much younger than she obviously is).  During the night, blood flows.

It's marketed as a 'horror comedy' yet I'm afraid I barely picked out anything that made me smile until at least halfway through.  There are a few pop culture moments and bits where the characters appear a bit 'self referential,' but, apart from that, there aren't many laughs to speak of.  Every now and again something jarring will happen like a cartoon segment out of nowhere or some text written on the screen in comic format.

It's typically low budget, set entirely in the house for 90% of the film and there's not a lot of special effects or gore to really make it stand out.  The set itself is nice and well-lit with colourful lighting everywhere, but it feels like Spain have tried to copy Netflix's 'The Babysitter' which did the whole thing a lot better.

It's not a long film, but it does drag in places - they ever try to pad the runtime with the characters watching the - copyright free - 'Night of the Living Dead' from the late sixties (that's probably the best bit).  There are a few moments which act as 'twists,' but I felt those were unnecessary - just watch 'The Babysitter' instead - at least you'll be able to understand the characters.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back