[Babysitter Wanted]
Plot:A girl who gets a babysitting gig at a house on a small rural farm is terrorized throughout the night.

Cast:Sarah Thompson, Matt Dallas, Bruce Thomas, Bill Moseley, Nana Visitor, Kristen Dalton, Kai Caster.

My Thoughts:A lesson learned.

Review:"Babysitter Wanted" is just another lesson in a long line of horror movie lessons. What's the biggest horror movie lesson besides not going down into the basement to investigate the strange noise? Or not getting out of your car to investigate the strange shadow on the road, or always look in the backseat before you get into a car? It's of course, pretty young white girls should never visit the countryside, aka the sticks, aka rural U.S.A. In horror films, they always end up getting themselves assaulted, killed, maimed, tortured mentally and emotionally, or a combination of all of the above.

Enter "Babysitter Wanted", to reinforce this lesson for the 6 billionth time. Only it manages to do it in a fun, and slightly new sort of way. Instead of a tedious, predictable, and boring one. So in that regards, I...a very harsh critic, decided to cut it some slack. The film stars Sarah Thompson as a wholesome christian girl who's not too christian to the point of being in Bible-Thumper land or any wacko like that. But...she's christian nonetheless. At any rate, she goes away to college, and when her and her roommate end up short on beds, they decide to hit the billboard the next morning to do something about it.

But Thompson's character Angie finds something better. A babysitting gig. Which her new roommate warns her is in the boondies (redneck territory), but Angie decides to take it anyways. Upon being introduced to the parents, and their son...she's left to watch the boy while the parents attend some cow-related celebration or something. Something farmer-related as I recall it. So things go pretty smoothly, until Angie starts getting strange phone calls from someone who doesn't say anything.

This turns out to be a guy who's been watching her ever since she arrived in town, and has been following her in a beat-up old pickup truck. Although Angie believes that the threat lies outside with the mysterious stalker, she soon realizes she has just as much if not more to fear on the inside with the child she's watching. A child who has some very weird eating habits. "Babysitter Wanted" paints the usual portrait of weirdness from the sticks. Movies like this are always a warning that if you're invited to a party in the sticks, offered a job in the sticks, or even if a hot girl you meet happens to live in the sticks, just say NO.

Nothing good can come of it. In this films case, the threat is not revealed too early however. Which is why it works. It really does not break down into one of those movies where the family are a bunch of crazy rednecks and they want to torture this city girl. The film plays around with the stranger outside, the weird kid, and the houses strange creaks and croaks. It gives you three options to come to believe. The house is haunted, the kid is evil, or the stranger outside is some sort of crazed loon who has a thing for stalking and slashing college students.

And then after being shown all of these possibilities for most of the film, it quickly smacks you in the face with a total twist which although you might have partially seen coming after a scene where Angie feeds the boy a strange meal which his parents specifically left for him...you might not be able to fully guess through and through. The writer of this film is pretty creative for the simple fact that they put a new spin on the typical "bad shit happens to girl in rural community" story.

Along with all of the options I mentioned above, Angie meets a local boy played by Matt Dallas, who is also thrown into the fray as an option for the terror which Angie ensues and endures throughout the movie. So so much is given to the viewer about what might actually be happening here, and when the truth is finally revealed...it's pretty shocking, and quite creepy as well. Sarah Thompson once again scores in the female lead role as Angie, and you've gotta wonder why she isn't chosen to lead more horror films.

Instead of all of these generic looking girls, or these pop singers who can't act but want to and need to be stopped for their and more importantly, our..own good. But Thompson continues to be stuck in indie films, although she is not in bad company. After doing an indie slasher with Jeffrey Combs two years ago, in this movie she stars opposite Bill Moseley, and Nana Visitor. Moseley having done many horror films, good ones. And Visitor having a small role in the recently released "Friday the 13th" reboot.

Still, I think Thompson needs a starring role in a big studio horror film because she can act, which is always a plus. And I don't become annoyed by looking at her or watching her act. Again...always a plus. But she's only 27 or something so she still has time. At any rate, "Babysitter Wanted" concludes on a pretty badass note, and some serious blood, gore, carnage, and mayhem are slung around in the films final 25 minutes.

With Thompson and Moseley being at the center of it all. The movie has a pretty cryptic ending, which can be interpreted in about two ways. But either way, if a sequel shows up somewhere within the next two or three years, don't be surprised. "Babysitter Wanted" puts some new wrinkles and twists into a film which without a clever writer at the helm, might've crashed and burned early. It's worth spending 90 minutes of your life on, atleast I think so.

Positives:Good female lead performance by Thompson, a solid story filled with many twists and surprises.

Negatives:The overall framework of events is cliche at times.

Overall:Three out of four stars.





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