USA. 2020.
Crew
Director – Rachel Talaly, Screenplay – Joe Ballarini, Based on the Novel by Joe Ballarini, Producers – Amie Karp & Ivan Reitman, Photography – Gregory Middleton, Music – Matthew Margeson, Visual Effects Supervisor – Robert Stadd, Visual Effects/Animation – Method Studios (Supervisor – Hamish Schimacher), Visual Effects – Ben Pickles, Entity FX (Supervisor – Mat Beck), NetFX (Supervisor – Jiwoong Kim), Talking Bird Pictures, Special Effects Supervisor – Phillip Davis, Makeup Effects – Amazing Ape Productions (Designer – Werner Pretorious), Production Design – David Brisbin. Production Company – Walden Media/The Montecito Picture Company.
Cast
Tamara Smart (Kelly Ferguson), Oona Laurence (Liz LeRue), Tom Felton (Grand Guignol), Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson (Berna Vincent), Ty Consiglio (Curtis Critter), Lynn Masako Cheng (Cassie Zhen), Ian Ho (Jacob Zelleman), Indya Moore (Peggy Drood), Tamsen McDonough (Ms Zelleman), Crystal Balint (Alexa Ferguson), Alessio Scalzotto (Victor Colleti), Anisa Harris (Deanna), Ashton Arbab (Tommy), Cameron Bancroft (Pete Ferguson)
Plot
Nerdy teenager Kelly Ferguson is volunteered into babysitting Jacob, the son of her mother’s boss Ms Zelleman. Kelly is not happy at being forced to give up going to a Halloween party where her crush will be to take the job. She finds that Jacob has difficulty sleeping and is trying to stay awake. Kelly enters Jacob’s bedroom just in time to see him snatched by bogey creatures who vanish through a hole in the floor. She then meets Liz LeRue who belongs to a secret order of babysitters who are dedicated to fighting the bogey creatures. Kelly accompanies Liz in pursuit of the bogeys as they deliver Jacob into the hands of Grand Guignol who needs him as part of his nefarious plot to unleash children’s nightmares.
This is a film adapted from the trilogy of Young Adult novels by Joe Ballarini. The books consists of A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting (2017), Beasts & Geeks (2018) and Mission to Monster Island (2019). Elsewhere, Ballarini has written the scripts for Dance of the Dead (2008) and My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), as well as directed/written one feature film with the non-genre comedy Father vs. Son (2010).
The film version has been produced by WaldenMedia who a few years ago were at the forefront of a movement of family films beginning with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007) and assorted other. The director is Rachel Talaly, a former production manager at New Line Cinema and producer of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films before graduating to direct the sixth film in the series Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). She went on to direct other films like Ghost in the Machine (1993) and the amiable Tank Girl (1995). Before returning to cinema screens here, her directorial work of the 1990s and 200s has all been in television, including episode of Doctor Who (2005– ) and an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows (2006) for the BBC, while she also produced the film The Borrowers (1997).
Monster hunters have been with us ever since formative vampire stories like Carmilla (1872) and Dracula (1897). On screen, we have had a whole range of Van Helsings and assorted vampire hunters, some of which have even gained their own films as per Blade (1998) and sequels and Van Helsing (2004). And then there have been comedy efforts such as The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and ensuing tv series, Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter (2001), Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer (2007) and Hawk and Rex: Vampire Slayers (2020). (For a more detailed list see Monster Hunters).
A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting is well made. It has some oddball creatures that are well designed. It sets the stakes high – a plot essentially lifted from Labyrinth (1986) where the babysitter must get the child she tends back from the goblins. Joe Ballarini clearly has some fun investing the world he has created with a back mythology and creating the unique team of monster hunters and their methods. On the other hand, the film feels so packaged a piece, so assembled to demographic formula that I struggle to find anything to remember about it a day later.
What kills the film is the casting. It is a film where anything that approaches a character has been erased from the film. Every character that appears throughout feels as though the producers have scrupulously gone through with a diversity checklist to make sure the bases are covered in all forms of representation. With the exception of Oona Laurence who gives Liz some life and Tom Felton (aka Malfoy from the Harry Potter films) who gives the impression he is auditioning for a camp version of Grease, every other actor in the film feels less like a character and more as though they are present to fulfil demographic inclusion. That to me is the kiss of death when it comes to creativity and originality. It is no longer a film about fun adventures being had by characters but a film afraid of upsetting demographic niches lest they feel offended about not being included.
Trailer here