Babysitter Massacre (2013)

(out of 5)







Babysitter Massacre (2013)

directed by:  Henrique Couto

starring:  Erin Ryan, Haley Jay Madison, Marylee Osborne, Stephanie Coffey, Geoff Burkman, Tara Clark
Format:  NTSC Region 1 Personal Collection

     Kind of hard to write a review for a film you didn't like by an artist you to appreciate but here goes.  First let's just get it out of the way.  I did not like the killer in this movie.  White face has been done and done and I realize the filmmaker was possibly paying homage to Halloween and maybe even Scream but I just couldn't get into this movie directly because of it.  He also was at least to me not scary and much like one of my issues with the Scream franchise they created a slasher all too human I guess is the best way to put it.  The weird and whiney next door neighbor just wasn't working for me.  Every time I saw the panty face killer running around I laughed and maybe that was the desired effect but I was looking forward to a more serious tone and would love to have seen more creativity in the character design.

     Ok there now that's out of the way I'll go on to what I did like about the movie.  First off let's just go right into the acting abilities here.  I have no idea what to say other than Ohio filmmakers just have a real cream of the crop when it comes to actors.  Erin Ryan, Marylee Osborne, and Haley Jay Madison are all three top notch actresses and Couto obviously knows what to say and do to bring their talents through the screen.  Having been a fan of Couto for awhile now I can honestly say there are not a lot of indie directors out there whom pull in range of emotion like this man.  I mean Marylee was a mess playing Bianca the true victim of this movie that suffered a great deal of childhood pain over the murder of her friend back in the days of a Babysitter's Club.

     This murderer seems obsessed with the girls from the Babysitter's Club and may in fact be the same killer who murdered Bianca's friend from the past.  This film plays out like a classic slasher from the days of Sorority House Massacre and Slumber Party Massacre which are both favorites of mine and I loved this.  Couto spends a perfect amount of time throwing around the backstory and character development enough to care very much about our characters here.  Poor Bianca gets shit on by her friends who blame her for the young girls death when they were younger and thus we have the raw emotion Marylee just oozed right from her tears and screams.  Really can't go on enough about her part in this film.  Hit the part perfectly as did Miss Ryan who played the best friend slash girl next door type trying to make everyone get along and make sense of what was going on.  Then we have Haley Jay the third shining star in this Couto production that just played the bitch friend also to a T!  These girls really made the film for me and I will be re-watching for their performances.

     Second thing I liked about the film were the effects.  Every death, torturous as they were was gruesome and real looking.  Indie productions aren't always up to par with effects I mean the film My Pure Joy was a fine example of effects just ruining what could have been.  Not here I rewound a couple scenes just to see the artistry again and again.  Real blood or stage blood haha running down the chests of these fine young ladies and just plain well staged kill scenes.  Couto captures the suffering of each killer very well and as I said I'm a big fan of his previous efforts.  Mostly because of this reason.  Haven't seen his Bulldog For Christmas movie yet but it's on my shopping list.  Although I have a feeling the mood will be quite different for that one.  While I couldn't get into the slasher aspect of this movie my suggestion is to give this one a go.  I mean I don't regret purchasing it or watching it.