DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Jonas Barnes, Michael Manasseri
Starring Sarah Thompson, Matt Dallas, Kristen Dalton, Bruce Thomas, Bill Moseley
Release date Out now

Nice religious girl Angie (Thompson) moves to a new town to begin college. She soon gets the nagging feeling that someone is following her, and learns that several girls have been murdered or disappeared in the town. Then she answers an ad for a babysitter…

The majority of low-budget horrors are content to pump out generic stories and low-rent gore in the aim of nabbing a quick profit, so it’s nice to come across a film like Babysitter Wanted which genuinely attempts to do something a little different.

The gruesome opening scene of a girl being slaughtered suggests we’re in for another grim slice of torture porn akin to Captivity and its ilk. But the film instead develops into an unsettling horror-mystery as the sympathetic heroine tries to shake off a horrible feeling that she’s being stalked. When Angie takes up a babysitting job, there’s a sidestep into When A Stranger Calls territory as the young girl finds herself plagued by phone calls and eerie sounds. And then things really become odd…

On subsequent reflection there are a few loose ends and iffy logic here, though to dwell on it too much here would ruin the film’s considerable surprises. This is a fun, unsettling little picture with a winning performance from Sarah Thompson as the religious small-town girl who finds there are far greater dangers than her pot-smoking roommate, and there are fun supporting roles for Bruce Thomas, Kristen Dalton and Bill Moseley. Here’s hoping that writing-directing duo Jonas Barnes and Michael Manasseri go on to great things.

The DVD comes with a ‘making of’ in which the directors try to explain their intentions, without giving away any of the film’s shocks. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
Fun, gory, surprising - everything you could want in a low-budget horror flick.