10 Babysitter Horror Movies You Probably Haven’t Seen
7. Emelie (2015)
In this subgenre, it’s the babysitter who’s usually the one in danger, but Michael Thelin’s Emelie (the only feature film helmed by the filmmaker) demonstrated that sometimes it’s the babysitter we should be afraid of.
A menacing home invasion horror that matches Michael Hanake’s Funny Games on the unsettling factor, the flick sees Emelie (Sarah Bolger) pose as Anna, a family's stand-in babysitter, after kidnapping her in the opening scene. Though she seems trustworthy when she appears on the doorstep, her guise is discarded the moment the parents leave.
Disabling the internet and taking the laces from the children's shoes, Emelie’s childcare methods rapidly descend to frightening levels of emotional and physical abuse. Alongside giving the three youngsters in her care a gun to play with, she forces them to watch their parents’ sex tape and tells them a bedtime story that would keep adults awake at night.
Though this lo-fi flick isn’t particularly excessive in its violence, Thelin nevertheless creates an uncompromisingly uncomfortable viewing experience by grounding each scene in a pervasive sense of realism that borders on oppressive.