I’m a girl. I have done my fair share of babysitting. I would be lying if I said this wasn’t a thought that crossed my mind at some point in time: what if someone tried to break in while I’m watching these kids? While it doesn’t happen that often, it does happen. Short film The Babysitter Murders: Timing’s Off is one of those stories, with an added twist — the titular sitter knows it will happen.
A babysitter experiencing time distortions sees a news report of her own murder.
The Babysitter Murders: Timing’s Off , IMDB
Grace (Elliot Frances Flynn) prepares herself a frozen dinner while Taylor (Giancarlo Gentile), the boy under her charge for the night, is asleep in bed. As the reporter on the television recites the news for the day, Grace catches the clocks in the kitchen inexplicably changing time. Hmm, that’s weird… whatever, she thinks. But then the news reporter repeats himself, again, and again, and again. She stops to listen intently and hears that the report is about her — and more specifically, her murder and Taylor’s kidnapping by known serial killers. As the clocks rapidly change time back and forth, she tries to get herself and Taylor to safety. But the timing is off, and she becomes stuck in every babysitter’s nightmare.
The Babysitter Murders: Timing’s Off doesn’t waste any time (pun intended) in getting straight to the point. We’re immediately in the darkness with Grace, and we sense the danger before she does. We hear the repeating television, we see the clocks tick backwards. And every second grows more anxiety for what we already know will happen to her. It’s like standing in line for a new, extreme roller coaster: the line grows your fear, the hill upwards solidifies it… and then Grace tries to make her escape (the downhill and first inversion).
The Babysitter Murders is doubly scary, offering two distinct threat levels. The first is the chance of being murdered, which I think everyone can relate to. The killers’ reputation precedes them, the newscaster telling us they’re from a local asylum and apparently have been committing murders all around town. They could be hiding anywhere in or around the house. The second level of scare is more for people watching over someone else; Grace isn’t the only one in danger, and by the end, Taylor’s fate is left unknown, making for a million other horrible possibilities that could have happened to him. Either way, time is not on Grace’s side and she is forced to reckon with and relive her death.
And while on the note of death, her kill scene was realistic and bloody. The Babysitter Murders is only about eight minutes long, but that one kill is more than enough payoff.
The Babysitter Murders: Timing’s Off is dread-inducing and akin to a Groundhog Day-style Slasher. Whether it’s maternal fear or surrendering to your sanguine fate, this short makes me thankful I don’t babysit anymore.
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