''A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting'' is a 2020 American

dark fantasy Dark fantasy, also called fantasy horror, is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporates disturbing and frightening themes. The term is ambiguously used to describe stories that combine horror fiction, horror ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

film directed by

Rachel Talalay Rachel Talalay (born July 16, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer best known for directing films such as ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' (1991), ''Ghost in the Machine (film), Ghost in the Machine'' (1993), and ''Tank Girl (film), ...

and distributed by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. The film was written by

Joe Ballarini Joe Ballarini is an American film director, screenwriter and author. He graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts Television Director's Program with a degree in film production in 1999.

and is based on his book trilogy of the same name. It stars

Tom Felton Thomas Andrew Felton (born 22 September 1987) is an English actor. Born in Surrey, Felton began appearing in commercials and made his screen debut in the role of Peagreen Clock in ''The Borrowers'' (1997). He portrayed Louis T. Leonowens in ...

Indya Moore Indya Adrianna Moore (born January 17, 1995) is an American actor and model. They are known for playing the role of Angel Evangelista in the FX television series ''Pose''. ''Time'' named them one of the 100 most influential people in the world ...

Tamara Smart Tamara Valerie Smart (born 14 June 2005) is an English actress. She made her debut in the CBBC series ''The Worst Witch'' (2017–2020). She has since appeared in the revival of ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' (2019) and the Netflix series ''Re ...

and

Oona Laurence Oona Laurence (born August 1, 2002) is an American actress. She is best known for the role of Matilda Wormwood in ''Matilda'' on Broadway alongside Bailey Ryon, Milly Shapiro, and Sophia Gennusa. She began her career as a New York City-based c ...

Plot

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

teenager Kelly Ferguson is nicknamed "Monster Girl” as a high school freshman because a monster had attacked her when she was young. Although planning to attend a senior's Halloween party that night, Kelly's mom has told her boss Ms. Zellman that Kelly can babysit her son Jacob so she can attend their office party. She gives her pages of information, of dos and don'ts. Once they're alone, Jacob tells Kelly about the monsters that plague him, showing her drawings of them. Kelly tells him that he'll stop dreaming of them in the future, like she did, then she checks for monsters under the bed and in the closet before handing him a little lights to ward off dark things. A few minutes later she hurries back, only to find three small monsters abducting him. After an unsuccessful 911 call, Kelly meets Liz Lerue, who is part of a secret society of children-protecting babysitters, and she calls the small monsters who carried off Jacob "Toadies”. They go on a mission to find Jacob, who has been kidnapped by the

Boogeyman The bogeyman (; also spelled or known as bogyman, bogy, bogey, and, in US English, also boogeyman) is a mythical creature typically used to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearances, and conceptions vary drast ...

. Liz uses the infant she cares for to lure out the Toadies, after tracking them down. However, the shiny object she offers it for Jacob doesn't tempt it as it normally would. The Toadies deliver Jacob to the Boogeyman, who gleefully explains how he plans to collect an army of monsters, thanks to Jacob's ability to imagine a large variety of them. He sets up Jacob in a bed, hooks his head in a helmet designed to extract his nightmares, and tries to lull him to sleep. Meanwhile, after Liz returns the baby to her home, the girls go to Brown University to the Rhode Island Order of Babysitters headquarters. As the vice president, she tasks the trainees (SITs) with emptying the pouch of the Toadie they've captured and searching for Jacob. Using a magic dust to recover memory, Kelly recalls the Boogeyman telling her at five that she has the ability to bring her dreams to life. She realizes he's the Grand Guignol, a stealer of dreams and bringer of nightmares. All of the SITs share scars from their own run-ins with boogeymen as small children. They will have to imbed Angel Hair potion in the Boogeyman with a monster punch. Curtis searches the globe for the ingredients. In the meantime, he provides Kelly with a few tools to help her on their quest. Feeding the Toadie a tracker, they let it escape in hopes it will lead them to the Boogeyman. The Toadie finds the tracker and informs the Boogeyman, who sets up a trap. Led to the Halloween party Kelly had wanted to attend, Liz and an unenthusiastic Kelly enter, seeking the tracker. A shadow monster awaits them in the basement. Chasing it around the house, they eventually realize they were led to a dead end. Next, the girls try to prevent a cat's eye amulet from being used by the Boogeyman, but are unsuccessful. Kelly escapes, but he captures Liz. Simultaneously both Curtis is concocting the Angel Hair potion while Kelly finds and breaks into the condemned lighthouse where Jacob is being held and the nightmares are starting to be extracted. The Toadies try to cage Kelly, but she outwits them. A hypnotised Liz locks her up, but she uses a multi-functional tool from Curtis which knocks her down and snaps her back to normal. In the chamber where the nightmare creatures are about to be released by the Boogeyman, Kelly knocks the Angel Hair given to her by a SIT into him with a monster punch and an awakened Jacob dissipates the nightmare monsters. Getting Jacob home before Ms. Zellman arrives, Kelly is commended for getting Jacob to sleep. Not only is she asked to babysit the next night, but Liz tells her she's going to recommend her to the Order of Babysitters and her crush Victor asks her out.

Cast

Release

The film premiered on Netflix on October 15, 2020.

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of based on critic reviews, with an average rating of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a weighted average score of 31 out of 100 based on 4 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

References

External links