It's a shame Babysitter Massacre seems to be having an identity crisis. What's on display here tries to balance two things that are just too opposite to work. On the one hand it's intended as a loving tribute to slasher flicks of the 80s and it delivers in that respect due to the abundant nudity, chintzy death scenes, having a masked killer and even throwing in a reference to Sorority House Massacre 2. However, it also tries to bring some real angst-like drama to the proceedings as various characters lament about how crappy their lives are and how the past events that inspired this new killing spree have damaged them. It's pretty heavy-handed and is constantly bumping up against the intentional camp writer-director Henrique Couto throws in. That's too bad because there are some entertaining moments here and it does manage to get in a few decent jolts during a finale that takes cues from the "torture porn" sub-genre that was briefly popular in the mid-2000s.

It's Halloween in Ray Falls, Ohio and seven years after a member of their babysitting club was murdered a group of friends are still living with the guilt. Angela (Erin R. Ryan) decides to have a sleepover and try to mend fences with all of her former mates, which leads to a lot of idle chatter and low scale dramatics, while a psycho sporting a white stocking over his head proceeds to almost randomly slaughter various women on the way to the pajama party - including, in what could only be described as unerotic as possible, one girl who rubs Halloween candy all over herself before being murdered.

Couto has a pretty good idea of why 80s slashers were fun to watch and that does shine through on a few occasions and he's made sure to get almost his entire female cast nude during the flick's 78 minutes but even the mild nastiness of the last third and decent shoestring production values can't stop you from being distracted by all the whining. This is especially annoying in almost every scene involving punker chick Bianca (Marylee Osborne) who spends most of the movie getting angry at everyone while feeling blamed and shamed over the past. She only helps make things come to a screeching halt after we've just watched all the girls at the sleepover do things like have a lingerie fashion show. There's also a bit too many junky one-liners and some of the acting is a little amateurish but I've definitely seen a lot worse indie flicks and I think Couto had his heart in the right place.

As our heroine, Ryan does a credible enough job and gets a humorous scene where she jokes around with her mom before she leaves for the night. She comes across as an everyday, average girl and that always helps. Osborne wears her punk rock look okay but spends way too much of the flick looking guilt-ridden and pulling anguished faces. She's fairly one-note and has a hard time carrying the brunt of the seriousness here. The other girls aren't too bad for amateur actors and it's always nice to see "normal" looking girls on screen - especially normal ones with a compulsion to disrobe.

I truly wanted to like Babysitter Massacre more than I did. I have no issues with throwbacks to 80s slashers, since they're something I don 't hesitate to watch and enjoy seeking out more obscure ones, but if you're going to attempt it you should probably go for camp over melodrama. The deaths are well enough done for the micro-budget, there are (as I said earlier) things to like here, and it's nice to see Couto trying to step above his indie roots and deliver more interesting fare than when he started out with the dopey Faces of Schlock anthologies. IMDB lists Haunted House on Sorority Row as being his next project and stars a lot of the same cast - perhaps they can pull it off better next time.

If this sounds like your sort of thing, head on over to Alternative Cinema to grab the extra features stuffed DVD. (Chris Hartley, 1/8/14)

Directed By: Henrique Couto.
Written By: Henrique Couto.

Starring: Erin R. Ryan, Marylee Osborne, Joni Durian, Tara Clark.