It used to be the case that horror movies would spend a lot of time showing us a babysitter in grave danger. Now we have a decent selection of movies that show us that the call is coming from inside the house in a different way. Babysitters aren't as innocent and trustworthy as they used to be. Emelie certainly turns out to be someone that you wouldn't want to leave alone with your children.
The only feature film, so far, from director Michael Thelin, who co-wrote the story with writer Richard Raymond Harry Herbeck, this is a relatively simple tale of a babysitter who isn't who she says she is. Emelie (Sarah Bolger) turns up to look after Jacob (Joshua Rush), Sally (Carly Adams), and Christopher (Thomas Bair), and the parents (played by Chris Beetem and Randi Langdon) assume that she is the young woman they hired named Anna. They head off for a date night, happy that the children will have a responsible young woman taking care of them. Although things start off well enough, they soon take a turn for the strange when Emelie's charade is revealed.
Walking a fine line between the thrills that the movie needs and some small semblance of plausibility, Emelie is an entertaining and dark thriller that should please movie fans who are now used to seeing a twist on the standard "babysitter in peril" premise. There are enough details revealed to show the motivation, and mental state, of the main character, but everyone seems to be aware that this isn't the kind of thing that can sustain an overlong runtime (it clocks in at a judicious 82 minutes).
Bolger is very good in the titular role, revealing more and more of her real self as the evening unfolds. She's initially mischievous, but that soon turns into real malice when it looks as if things aren't going to go her way. Rush, Adams, and Bair all give fine performances as the children in her care, with Rush being allowed to get more work to do as his character starts to piece together the full extent of the danger that he and his siblings could be in. Beetem and Langdon are mostly offscreen, of course, but do get one or two surprisingly good moments as their date night comes to an end, Elizabeth Jayne is enjoyable as an "unwelcome" visitor who could scupper Emelie's plans, and Dante Hoagland is a welcome, if unnecessary addition, playing Jacob's friend, Dan.
Both Thelin and Herbeck have a good idea of just how far to take things before it all reaches a point of no return. There are no big surprises, and all of the tension comes from the simple fact that a group of innocent children have been placed in jeopardy by parents who don't realise that they've made a huge, and potentially deadly, mistake, but this is a decent little psychological thriller.
Not one to bump up your viewing list, especially if you have more highly-rated recommendations to check out, but this is worth the relatively short time investment required, if only just for the fantastic lead performance from Bolger, who seems to be having a blast portraying a character I'd love to see re-used elsewhere.
7/10
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