Peter Medak
Needing a fresh start, the Benedict family
have recently moved from Chicago to a large country home on an island off the
coast of Seattle. Dad Jeff (William Shatner), a dentist, has immersed
himself in work, tries to stay away as much as possible because he doesn't want
to deal with his wife and may have a mistress on the side. Mom Liz (Patty
Duke) is unhappy, unfulfilled, feels neglected and is still fighting an
alcohol addiction; which had gotten so bad before it was the catalyst for their
move in the first place. Desperate for a purpose in life, she's
channeled all her ill-feelings and misery over into her role as "good mother" and is smothering
and overly-protective when it comes to 12-year-old daughter Tara (Quinn
Cummings), who she seldom even lets out of her sight. Being prevented from
playing with children in the area, Tara is lonely and bored herself and has
developed a crush on an older neighborhood teen named Scotty (David Wallace).
The family is vulnerable and at their breaking point, and that's the perfect time
for 18-year-old orphan Joanna Redwine (Stephanie Zimbalist) to come into
their lives. After all, she's a lovely, polite, well-mannered, intelligent,
confident and compassionate young lady... at least at first.
After "accidentally" causing a car accident, Joanna shows up to check in
on Liz and plies her with a sob story about how she'll soon be kicked out of her home by her foster
parents. Liz sympathizes with her plight and offers her a summer job there doing
house work and serving as a babysitter and companion to Tara. Joanna moves in
and quickly proves to be an excellent cook and housekeeper, not to mention wise
and mature beyond her years. She becomes a friend to Tara, encouraging her to
spend more time outdoors and helping her get over her fear of water and snakes. She also becomes a confidant and shoulder to cry on mom, who is frequently upset at her
husband's absence and casual neglect. As for Jeff, well he can't help but notice how attractive she is. But as things in these sort of films always do, everything eventually starts unraveling. Joanna proves herself
to be a murderous psychopath with a history of tearing apart families and then
murdering them before moving on to the next one and trying again.
A masterful manipulator, Joanna manages to convince Liz she can do no wrong
and encourages her to start drinking again until she's a pathetic hysterical
drunk. She quickly moves in on Scotty; heartlessly stealing the impressionable
young Tara's crush (who will later die in a mysterious boating "accident") and
dresses in mom's sexy black negligee in an attempt to seduce dad. She stops
cooking and doing her housework, trashes the house during a party, turns the
bitter spouses against one another and alienates the daughter from both parents. Overhearing her lying, neighboring psychiatrist Dr. Lindquist (John Houseman)
immediately suspects something is off with Joanna and begins investigating
matters. Though juvenile records are sealed, he is able to find the young girl's former
foster mother (Virginia Kiser), who blames her for the death of her
infant child. He also eventually learns Joanna has some
(plastic-wrapped) skeletons in her closet... but can he reach the family before
it's too late?
Director Medak had just made the excellent ghost story The Changeling
(1980) with George C. Scott prior to this one and, while it's clearly not in the same
league, it still isn't a bad little thriller. The entire cast does competent work and
Jennifer Miller's plausible script features good characterizations and is quite sly and
perceptive at times. It's also very similar to the later Poison Ivy
(1992), with a charming and seductive young sociopath moving in on a vulnerable
family and leaving them more screwed up than they were before she came into the picture, and also
shares definite similarities to such later films as The Hand That Rocks the
Cradle (1992). The intrigue unfortunately isn't sustained through to the end though and it eventually opts for a routine and predictable finale.
The Babysitter debuted on ABC in November of 1980. There was an
American VHS release through HBO and it was also issued on tape in Brazil by
Orion (as A Enviada do Mal), in Finland by Hollywood Home Video (as
Lapsenvahti), in the UK and a few other countries. There's no DVD as of this writing,
but the film has played on the MGMHD Channel.
★★1/2
