Lucas Masson’s “Babysitting” is a Deliciously Diabolical Slasher Surprise

Babysitting is something we have all had to do at one point in our lives. It could be for our younger siblings, the neighbors across the street, or an unknown stranger. It doesn’t really matter. I mean who hasn’t spent at least one night in an unknown house, gobbling snacks, and getting paid for doing as little work as possible? The subject of babysitting is at hand in our slasher of the day, a short film from France from writer/director Lucas Masson entitled, just that, “Baby-Sitting.” The film takes a look at a night that is about to go terribly wrong when a young woman breaks the rules while babysitting and is forced to pay the price.

As “Baby-Sitting” begins we meet a young woman named Elise who is walking over to a neighbor’s house to babysit two young children, a boy and a girl, she doesn’t know. The parents are willing to pay her a premium price for babysitting and it is simply an offer she cannot refuse. When she arrives at the house, something seems off. The kids (brilliantly creepy Vasco Bailly-Gentaud and Prune Richard) stare at Elise with a blank, cold glaze. They are unresponsive to anything around them. They don’t laugh, they don’t smile..it is as if they have yet to learn feelings or any sort of emotions at all. Elise invites two friends over to check out the disturbing children and decides to make the five of them a snack. Only thing in in the house is meat: ground meat and lots of it.

What happens next…well, it just needs to be seen to be believed. “Baby-Sitting” just might be the best short film I have ever seen and this is coming from someone who has seen hundreds of short films. Loved the opening Grindhouse style credits, the score is playful yet very sinister and creepy, and the children were deliciously evil without being over-the-top. The use of practical gore effects had me with my mouth agasp for the last half of the film. As if that wasn’t great enough, the use of dark humor had me smiling throughout (there is a scene involving a boy scout that is especially deliciously deranged). I seriously loved every moment of the film and my only criticism is I wish it were longer. I am extremely impressed and cannot wait to see what director/writer Lucas Masson has in store for slasher fans. He has one sick and twisted mind and hopefully that never changes. After “High Tension,” “Inside,” “Martyrs,” and now this, can we all agree that French know where it is at when it comes to horror today?