THE BABYSITTER
US, 1980, 96 minutes, Colour.
Patty Duke Astin, William Shatner, John Houseman, Stephanie Zimbalist, Quinn Cummings.
Directed by Peter Medak.
The Babysitter is an entertaining telemovie, one of those thrillers where a mysterious person enters a household, transforms the members of the household, threatens them with destruction. The baby sitter in question is Stephanie Zimbalist (The Awakening, Remington Steele). She is attractive and sinister. The family consists of William Shatner and Patty Duke Astin with Quinn Cummings (The Goodbye Girl) as the daughter. A neighbour is John Houseman.
With such a strong cast, the predicted atmosphere of menace is successful. Direction is by Peter Medak whose films in England (Negatives, The Ruling Class) showed promise but who received mainly telemovies for direction in the United States (Zorro the Gay Blade). Effectively eerie.
1. An entertaining thriller? Portrait of a family? An outsider? Menace and destruction?
2. A piece of Americana? The brittle American family? Madness and menace? For the television audience?
3. Locations: the island and its beauty, the water? Homes? Light and darkness? Shadows? Pace and effect? Suspense atmosphere? Suggestions of violence? Musical score?
4. The portrait of the husband and wife: their life together, tensions? Their love for Tara? The new house? The wife and her suspicion of her husband, her drinking? Socials? The husband and his infidelity? The arrival of Joanna, suspicions? Her insinuating herself into the family? The wife's liking her, relying on her? her talking to her, opening up her life to her? The contrast with Joanna's seduction of the husband? Their reliance on Joanna? Suspicions, clashes? Their dependence on her? Suspicions and final dangers? The reconciliation between the two? The strongly delineated characters?
5. Tara and her life with her parents, at home? Her needing a companion? The meetings with Joanna, the friendship? Disobeying her parents? Caught up in Joanna's life? Her being cared for? Menaced?
6. Joanna and her mysterious background? Her playing with Tara? Her insinuating herself into the household? Manipulation, plausibility? The husband investigating her background? Her answers for every question? The attraction towards Scott? The grandfather's suspicions and investigations? The tragedy for Scott? Her erratic behaviour, seemingly haunted, possessed? Her being confidante to the wife? yet destroying her? The seduction of the husband? Bewildered? Evil intentioned? Possessed?
7. Scott and his grandfather? Neighbours, the boat? Infatuation with Joanna? The accident? The grandfather and his suspicions?
8. An enjoyably moody piece? The portrait of the American family and its tensions? The mysterious, the occult? The psychological? The mysterious stranger who wreaks havoc on a family?
