Babysitter’s Guide

Babysitter’s Guide

Anyway, this is a fantasy film; yet not even one instance in “A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting” rings true not the adolescent anger, not the nightmares of small children, and surely not the feeling of fun and camaraderie meant to drive these Halloween escapades.

Moreover, there doesn’t seem to be any sense in Rachel Talalay directing a movie that she hopes would spawn further entries based on Joe Ballarini’s Young Adult series. There is very little here that grabs you and makes you want more. Everything about this Netflix adaptation tries too hard to be harmless so as to appeal to as many children stuck at home as possible but instead of being something fun to keep them distracted from missing their Halloween nights trick or treating, ‘Babysitter’s Guide’ might put them into sleep early.

However, Tamara Smart is delightful on screen as our tour guide into the dark underworld of this flick (Lyssa). They call her Kelly for all intents and purposes since she plays a high school freshman. She became known by her peers as Monster Girl for her story about an ugly creature who visited her overnight when she was still a kid.

The mean girls and sweet nerds alike talk between them conversing in what adults consider teen language in Ballarini’s adapted script. (“Pump the brakes, Casanova,” is the kind of cringey thing these people say to each other.) This also falls under those movies where a character such as Kelly who has brains, beauty and kindness should supposedly be an outcast.

Yet because visually she is portrayed like a weirdo genius with mathematical equations styled after “A Beautiful Mind” jumping off classroom marker boards over her eyes, Kelly herself is supposed babysit on Halloween night instead of going out for wholesome rager where cool kids including his crush are (Alessio Scalzotto).

Consistent with this thought process, Liz Lerue played by Oona Laurence, a hard girl with a bob cut who rides around on her scooter saying snarky one- iners, arrives. She happens to belong to a secret society of babysitters for monsters, as she says. That is why the movie has this title (Ballarini). They have gadgets and chapters and Merlin and Rosa Park among their alumni includes Frida Kahlo, too (Ballarini).

However what really matters is that they feel responsible for their charges. In this case they fight through an army of round fat ugly goblins in candy colours looking like Ugly Doll knockoffs (they are kind of cute) to get at the boss figure; known as The Grand Guignol meaning he wants to drain kid’s nightmare fuel out. Tom Felton Draco Malfoy himself turns up more impish than anything else playing the part, with his long hair straggly and threadbare clothes making us think of a grungier Eddie Vedder.

Visual effects in the film are cheesy, detached, and resemble everything that is low budget about it. The chintziness evokes memories of Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids” movies, which he made on a shoestring budget, while also wearing many hats during production. Except for a few visual touches including The Grand Guignol’s elegant lair inspired by art deco architecture, very little of it works.

However, this does not mean “Babysitter’s Guide” does not have problems with world-building; in fact Ballarini creates such dense mythology that the whole thing becomes unnecessarily complex. Meanwhile, every adventure is filled with wall-to-wall perky pop songs that make annoying factor grow louder as put by my 11-year old son saying: “Why is the music so stupid?”

The exact purpose of Talalay and Co.’s aim here is difficult to figure out. Moreover, though “Babysitter’s Guide” isn’t scary enough to be taken seriously, it doesn’t really have any good jokes either. All the characters seem flat and their pranks are anything but thrilling. It occupies a bland area where things lack flavour like squished up small-sized 3 Musketeers bars at the bottom of Halloween candy.

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