Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, I don't usually do this, but I just finished watching the 1991 comedy movie, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, starring Christina Applegate, and I didn't want to wait until the morning to write about it. So here we are. Let's get into it!

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is insane. Released on June 7th, 1991 the movie earned $25.1 million at the box office, but didn't do so well critically. However, it found its audience on home video and on cable. I actually watched bonus features on the Blu-rays for Mallrats (1995) and The Iron Giant (1999) and both said that certain movies are made for a particular audience and sometimes that audience doesn't find those movies at the cinema. Sometimes it finds them at the video store or on TV. And on streaming these days, but still, the sentiment is the same.

When their mom goes on vacation, Sue Ellen, Kenny, Walter, Melissa, and Zach are left with an old lady named Mrs. Sturek, who is a hardass tyrant of a babysitter. However, after she sees Kenny's room and the various posters, the mess on the floor, and the smell of weed and stale food, Mrs. Sturek keels over and dies. Sue Ellen, or Swell as she's called by friends and siblings, discovers the body and with her siblings's help, she drops it off at the mortuary. However, Mrs. Sturek had all of the money Mrs. Crandall (the kids's mom) had left for them. Swell ends up getting a job at a fashion company as a executive assistant to the senior vice president of operations, Rose after working one night at a fast food joint called Clown Dog, where she meets Bryan. The hijinks continues from there and all of the kids grow from the experience.

I didn't wanna give away too much of the plot, because nothing I say could ever possibly do it justice. You have to see it for yourself to believe it. I love this movie. 

The cast is insane. I'm not all that familiar with the cast. I vaguely remember Christina Applegate from when my parents would watch Married...with Children when I was a little kid, but the only other cast members that I'm mildly familiar with are Jayne Brook, who plays snobby receptionist, Carolyn, and David Duchovny, who plays Bruce, the company's head inventory clerk, who gets chewed out by Swell because he's harassing her while she's on the phone. Jayne Brook played Admiral Katrina Cornwell in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, and of course David Duchovny is well known as Fox Mulder on The X-Files. According to Wikipedia Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead was one of Duchovny's first roles prior to being cast on The X-Files. So that's cool.

One of my favourite scenes in this movie is a quiet one between Swell and Bryan during their date on the beach. They're talking about what they want to do in the future, and how it's unfair that you're expected to be one thing your entire life once you decide what to do. The typical teenager stuff that I remember thinking about a million years ago when I was in my last two years of high school. Yes, my friends, I'm ancient. I'm joking, but you get my point. Life is difficult at that age and you don't always know what you want to do even though you're expected to know.

I also love how Walter was able buy an entire home theater system and have it delivered to the house with no questions asked. I love it because it's so ridiculous. And the TV had the little panel that you flip down to reveal more buttons like the contrast, and probably the volume selectors or the channel selection buttons. I think one of the TVs that my family had when I was growing up had that panel, but, I mostly remember TVs like that from school and from the hospital. So that was a very nostalgic moment.

This was actually my first time watching this movie. My friends over on the VHS Club Podcast reviewed this movie last spring and naturally they recommended it as it's one of their favourite movies. So, when I was out with Brad last week on the Canadian Civic Holiday, we happened to be at Sunrise Records in one of the malls, and I happened to come across this movie on DVD, along with Mallrats and The Iron Giant on Blu-ray. So, I picked up all three as a fun selection of '90s movies, only one of which I'd seen before (The Iron Giant obviously). I loved it. I messaged Katie from the VHS Club Podcast when I finished the movie and told her that this was a fun Friday night flick. I also told her that if I'd known about this movie when I was a teenager in the early to mid 2000s, it absolutely would've been a Friday night rental for me. Especially after 2002 when I first got the TV/VCR combo set for my 16th birthday from my uncle. 

It's absolutely true. At that point in my life, I wasn't going out all that much, so weekends were spent watching movies, episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on VHS, and playing video games with my brother and sister. Mostly it was movies that I already owned on VHS, and, once I got my portable DVD player from my parents, on DVD, but every once in a while my parents would rent a movie for us to rent as a family, or just for my siblings and I to watch. So, if I'd known this movie existed, I would've asked my parents to rent it for me, or I'd look for it to air on TV and then tape it to watch later like I did with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Batman & Robin (1997), and Sailor Moon R: The Movie - Promise of the Rose (1993/2000).

I had such a fun time watching this movie. Like I said, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is a fun Friday night movie that made me feel good by the end of it. I laughed, I rolled my eyes, and just had a good time. So, if you've never seen it before, I recommend giving it a watch. It's available on VHS, DVD, and on Amazon in the U.S., but it's not streaming anywhere in Canada.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for this week. I know, I said that earlier when I did my blog update this afternoon, but I actually mean it this time. So, have a good weekend and I will see you all back here in the Geek Cave next week. Take care.