Starting
in the 1980s, most horror movies have been set in suburbia (or remote summer
camps). That is because if you want to scare people, you have to go where they
live. This is not Amber’s neighborhood, but she inadvertently put herself in
the profoundly wrong place at the wrong time, when she accepted a baby-sitting
gig for larcenous reasons. Much to her own surprise, she will do her best to
protect her young charge in Abiel Bruhn & John Rocco’s The Night Sitter,
which releases today on VOD.
Ted
Hooper is a wealthy collector of occult relics, so you know he has more money
than sense. Amber and her accomplices are sure they can plunder plenty from his
spacious suburban home, while he is on his date. Heck, they are not even dead
set on opening the conspicuously locked trophy room. On the other hand, Ronnie,
the obnoxious son of Hooper’s girlfriend (also sleeping over) is curious enough
for the entire group. Things will get tough for Ronnie, but it will actually be
Hooper’s sensitive son Kevin who gets the fateful papercut on the pages of an
infernal book of witches.
The
situation soon gets downright Suspirious when the witches known as “The Three
Mothers” start terrorizing the occupants of the Hooper house. Amber’s cronies
are not much help, but at least Vincent, the Jack Black-like dude living across
the street, has some insight into weird supernatural mumbo jumbo. Frankly, they
are all pretty easy pickings for the witches, except for the resourceful Amber.
Having bonded with Kevin before all the toil and trouble broke out, Amber
scrambles to defend him from the literal forces of darkness.
For
fans of vintage horror movies, Night Sitter is nostalgic in all the
right ways. It mostly keeps its tongue planted in its cheek, but it still
serves up plenty of mayhem and a fair amount of gore. Amber would not be out of
place in the Scream franchise, but the rest of the characters would be
more compatible with Dan O’Bannon’s classic Return of the Living Dead,
which is quite august company, among horror comedies.
Elyse
Dufour is terrific as Amber, making her the snarkiest, most confident potential
final girl in recent memory. She also develops some nice on-screen chemistry
with both Jack Champion and Ben Barlow, as Kevin and Vincent, respectively.
However, Jermaine Rivers and Amber Neukum steal scene after scene as Rod, Amber’s
horndog accomplice and Lindsey, his ditzy, soon-to-be-possessed girlfriend.
Bruhn
& Rocco certainly do not reinvent the wheel, but they keep things zippy. Sitter
is not as funny as Better Watch Out, an obvious comparison film, but
its horror elements are arguably scarier. Regardless, it is all quite a bit of
fun. Recommended for old school horror fans, The Night Sitter is now
available on VOD platforms.