The Babysitter's Seduction (1996) (TV)

Director:

David Burton Morris

Writers (WGA):

Shirley Tallman (written by) &
Nancy Hersage (written by)

Release Date:

22 January 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

She was hired to watch over the kids. But who was going to watch over her?

Plot:

The mother of the family for which Michelle baby-sits dies unexpectedly. Michelle is asked to take over...

Plot Keywords:

Woman In Jeopardy | Female Nudity | Erotica | Lolita | Detective

Cast

Stephen Collins	...	Bill Bartrand
Keri Russell	...	Michelle Winston
Phylicia Rashad	...	Det. Kate Jacobs
Tobin Bell	...	Det. Frank O'Keefe
John D'Aquino	...	Paul Richards
Linda Kelsey	...	Alice Winston
Arian Waring Ash	...	Tracy Butler
Dawn Lambing	...	Sally Bartrand
Roger Floyd	...	Danny Bennett
Adam Crosby	...	Kyle Bartrand
Kristie Horton	...	Jennifer Bartrand
Travis Robertson	...	Jeff Winston
Bob Roitblat	...	Waiter
Kristian Truelsen	...	Desk sergeant
Kimberly Kashani	...	Amy

Also Known As:

Death Pays the Sitter (USA) (working title)
The Baby-Sitter's Nightmare (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

UK:85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA

Company:

Hearst Entertainment Productions

Trivia:

Actual students attending Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida were used as extras in the filming. All students came on a volunteer basis and none were paid for the days spent shooting at the school.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Michelle jumps out of the water with the knife, she's wearing a light gray bra under her white shirt. Later, when she's out of the pool, her bra is white.

The heart wants what it wants

This was a fairly watchable film. Stephen Collins' character came across as a very nice person, and as with any good mystery, one kept guessing for a while as to "whodunnit," after the other suspect was introduced. (Although once the killer became known, we entered into silly potboiler territory.) I thought Ms. Rashad made for a good detective. And our heroine was very winning. As for the older man-younger woman hook-up that a few reviewers found repulsive, such an outlook is really a curious state of the times. Our extremely youth-oriented society has brainwashed the masses into rejecting practically everyone who is over thirty; it's as though you either must cease to exist as a sexual being once you reach a certain age, or you must only be confined to partnering with one in your own age bracket. Even if there's a young person of legal, consenting age, people have now been trained to believe -- perhaps because the media has sometimes built the sex offender issue to a fever pitch, and some people think they are doing their "moral duty" -- there is something unethical about an age gap between lovers. I just watched the 1937 movie, ALGIERS, where the young and beautiful Hedy Lamarr was engaged to an older ogre of a man who was much more hideous than Stephen Collins, and yet the alliance seemed fairly natural; yes, in this case, she was in it for his money (an allure for our heroine in "The Babysitter's Seduction" as well, although the babysitter did develop genuine feelings for the man), but that was Hedy Lamarr's choice, just as it was Anna Nicole Smith's in real life, years later. Stepping aside from the lure of the sugar daddy, and entering the realm of genuinely "equal" relationships, it's a pity people have become uptight, and regard age as more than a number. Years back, there was more normalcy about accepting older people as regular human beings.