Don't Kill the Babysitter (2023 TV Movie) User Reviews

Devious Deeds

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 14 June 2023]

Mariela is determined to leave her native Venezuela for the United States but is struggling to secure an au pair job until she meets Chase and Lori Collins. After a successful video interview, the couple hires Mariela to care for their young daughter, Abbey, and arranges for Mariela to stay in their home. When Mariela arrives, she finds everything about the family is perfect except that Chase and Lori are a bit overprotective with Abbey. One night, while Mariela and Abbey are playing hide and seek, a suspicious man breaks in and warns Mariela that "not everything is as it seems." Shaken, Mariela starts to notice odd things about the Collins-from Lori's constant cough attacks to a secret locked door in Chase's office-and shares her concerns with her new friend, Sarah, who is a nurse. Concerned for Lori's health, Mariela recommends that Chase interview Sarah for a caretaker job. But then Sarah gets killed ... And Mariela's life is in danger.

An above average thriller that ticks all the boxes, has some creepy atmosphere in the house and woods, keeps its cards close to its chest - the finale is genuinely suspenseful, thorough the doctor's secret operation bunker is like a Bond villain's lair - well not quite. It kept my attention and was well acted by all.

Matters of the Heart

[lavatch · 7/10 · 24 July 2023]

The filmmakers could have come up with a better title than either of the two they selected ("Don't Kill the Babysitter" and "Devious Deeds"). Perhaps the title "A Grotesque Mockery of the American Dream" would have been a good fit.

Mariela Rodriguez is an immigrant to the Denver area from Venezuela. She was hired as an au pair off the books by Chase and Lori Collins, a couple with a young daughter named Abbey. Dr. Collins has to be one of the most nefarious MDs ever to grace the celluloid of a Lifetime motion picture.

In the most chilling moment of the film, it is revealed to Mariela's friend Sarah Smith that the reason for hiring Manuela was the doctor's interest in her for an organ match. The good doctor is planning organ harvesting in its most lethal form: the heart.

There was a strong lead performance by the young actress playing Mariela. But another good effort was turned in by the performer playing the conflicted Lori Collins, a character with a conscience.

It was unfortunate that there was major collateral damage in the film with the hapless Jordan and Manuela's kind friend Sarah. There was also melodramatic excess in the final stretch of the film with one character heavily sedated and another getting knocked on the head twice, then bouncing back up like a yo-yo. The entire sequence that payed out in the Collins fortress was filled with grand, operatic gestures and bathos.

Still, all things considered, there was good suspense in the film that even approached some of the work of Hitchcock in elements of the sinister evoked in the mundane domestic life of the Collins family. It was quite a welcome mat to America to throw down for the young immigrant "dreamer" from Venezuela!

Wow! I did NOT forget figure this one out!

[catfanatic888 · 8/10 · 16 September 2023]

I expected very little from a movie called Don't Kill the Babysitter but it was quite good! If you enjoy Lifetime thrillers, this one is worth the watch. Many Lifetime thrillers are a bit predictable but this one had me going the whole way through. I couldn't figure out the endgame of the one I suspected of being a villain. It wasn't that simple. Twists and turns continued throughout the movie leading me to be shocked when all was revealed. I literally shouted "WHAT!?!?!" But it all made sense but was incredibly creepy. The title of the movie is not great but the actual movie IS! Go in with an open mind and you will be pleasantly surprised!