The Night Sitter (2018)

A woman we’ll only ever get to know under her nom de plum of “Amber” (Elyse DuFour) arrives at the house of Ted Hooper (Joe Walz), would-be paranormal investigator waiting on his shot for his own shitty TV show, one evening around Christmas to babysit Ted’s son Kevin (Jack Champion), as well as the insufferable Ronnie (Bailey Campbell), the son of Ted’s girlfriend. In truth, Amber isn’t really called Amber, and she isn’t a babysitter by trade but actually planning on robbing the house, particularly the locked room filled with Ted’s occult treasures, with the help of her friend Rod (Jermaine Rivers). Because the film needs a bit more fodder for a handful of cool gore effects later on, Rod also brings his girlfriend Lindsey (Amber Neukum), Amber’s would-be boyfriend appears, and a neighbour interested in the occult shows up.

At that point, Amber – let’s keep the name – has already bonded with the shy Kevin who has been having curious dreams of three witches that may very well be connected to one of his father’s artefacts, so when Ronnie gets into Ted’s treasure chamber and wakes up the Three Mothers (not the ones you hope, probably), she is actually going out of her way to protect him. And the film doesn’t even bring up anything about her having a son or brother somewhere! Soon, the whole of the cast is magically locked in with the witches, and Amber will have to prove her mettle as a witch killer.

Nobody is going to accuse The Night Sitter’s directors/writers Abiel Bruhn and John Rocco of having created something original, but as a throwback to the times of Evil Dead, Demons, and Night of the Demons this is often a highly entertaining movie. Like those films, this is clearly a very low budget affair but the filmmakers have gone out of their way to put said low budget to fine visual use, hitting on an aesthetic of Dean Cundey-style (and really, Cundey-coloured) camerawork, practical gore effects, simple yet effective monster and possessed design, as well as a cool synth soundtrack in the right spirit, and going with it for the whole of the movie. This isn’t cargo cult filmmaking that only apes the surface level of the films of the past either, but there are clear signs that everyone involved doesn’t just no the what but also the why of their approach. You also have to admire the film’s absolute commitment to the classical colours of horror (well, and Christmas) – green, red and blue.

I don’t want to oversell The Night Sitter – the first half or so of the film is a bit slower than it exactly needs to be, making something of a meandering impression (and I believe the filmmakers are to clever by far to re-create that element of past horror on purpose), and the humour is a bit hit or miss, too. But the film’s aesthetics are pleasantly strong and coherent even then, and once things get going, there are quite a few very fun scenes of mild carnage and supernatural shenanigans that left at least me very satisfied with the whole affair. For once, I also enjoyed that last act twist that uses the audience’s willingness to just go with certain things in this sort of film for a mild yet clever surprise.

On the acting side, I found a couple of performances a bit too broad, but the child actors are much better than you’d fear on this budget level, and DuFour makes a great heroine, finding the right spot between being manipulative and likeable without ever needing to go through a big moment of redemption.


The whole thing’s a truly fun affair and makes a nice contrast to the concentration of much of contemporary horror on being not-fun. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of these approaches, mind you, it’s just nice to have a choice from time to time.