Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead Review

Even in today’s environment where any piece of vintage content seen by more than 12 people is considered reboot-worthy, the 1991 comedy Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead is an odd movie to revisit. That’s because the film was riffing off the then-recent phenomenon of the latchkey kid — Christina Applegate played a 17-year-old forced to care for her four siblings when their mother goes on vacation and their babysitter dies.

The film belonged to a new wave of movies following children without parental supervision and was released just eight months after Home Alone. Don’t Tell Mom… was not the funniest of the bunch, but it had some smarts. It was a teen fantasy tinged with the hard reality of having to feed your family and keep the lights on inside a busy home (the original title was The Real World until the studio altered it to avoid conflict with MTV’s then upcoming reality show of the same name).

In 2024, kids having absentee parents is no longer a problem, since TikTok now raises our children. So the challenge for director Wade Allain-Marcus is to find a fresh angle to justify a remake. His solution is to make the same movie again except with a Black family instead of a white family. It’s a promising idea, as adding a contemporary racial component opens up whole new avenues of conflict and comedy. But in this case, trying to mix a respectful redo with a risk-taking update means not doing justice to either.

The film operates at cross purposes, maintaining a family-friendly, sitcom-like vibe while dropping the N-word and acknowledging aspects of the Black experience that helped earn the film an R rating. It’s a shame because screenwriter Chuck Hayward’s dialogue is, pound for pound, funnier than the original, and Simone Joy Jones is terrific in the role originated by Applegate. But this Babysitter, despite its winning cast, is not as nervy as it thinks it is, squandering its central idea and leaving us with a remake that is pleasant if underachieving.

This Babysitter Lacks a Tough Satirical Hand

Coincidentally, Jones is coming off another bizarre revamp project, Peacock’s Bel-Air, a dramatic overhaul of the beloved ‘90s sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. That one lays on the Sturm und Drang pretty thick, but at least it has the courage of its convictions. In contrast, Don’t Tell Mom… soft-pedals moments that could have used a tougher satirical hand, and it gives too much comedic oxygen to throwaway lines about OnlyFans and Who Shot JR?

Through it all, Jones comes off quite well as Tanya, a 17-year-old whose trip to Spain is shelved when her mother (Patricia Williams, looking quite uncomfortable) suddenly decamps for a yoga retreat in Thailand. But instead of allowing Tanya to care for her stoner brother Kenny (Donielle T. Hansley), nerdy brother Zach (Carter Young), and goth sister Melissa (Ayaamii Sledge), mom brings in the elderly babysitter, Mrs. Sturak. The introduction of Mrs. Sturak portends good things, not only because she’s played by beloved nonagenarian June Squibb, but her acidic dialogue suggests the juicy possibility that her character is the sister of Clint Eastwood’s racist retiree from Gran Torino.

Proclaiming that “hip hop ruined the Blacks” and “I know how to discipline you little N-words,” Mrs. Sturak momentarily suggests that the safety net has been removed and Squibb’s deranged character is going to give this thing the sense of danger that all great comedies aspire to provide. No such luck, however, as the original film’s story is dutifully followed. In short order, Mrs. Sturak drops dead and it’s up to Tanya and her siblings to hide the body, ensure no one finds out and, most crucially, earn some money so they can eat while their mother is away.

Is ‘Don’t Tell Mom…’ a Family Film or Is It Too Vulgar?

Don’t Tell Mom…is the most notable feature directing credit for Allain-Marcus, who is primarily an actor. Having the blueprint of the 1991 version certainly helped him keep the story on track, but he can’t quite decide who this film is for. Compared to anything that happened in the original, it’s a bracing moment when one of the boys fears being arrested for killing the babysitter and tried as an adult. But most of these racially-charged concerns are played for laughs, which sucks the venom out of the idea that a white family and a Black family would have very different experiences living out the same story. And if the idea is to keep things light for younger viewers, the preponderance of slurs and profanity would seem to go against that.

Either way, we’re not getting a Kenya Barris-level comedic dissection here but, rather a fairly straightforward rehash of the 1991 version, meaning it’s up to Tanya to find a way to feed her family. After an initial stab at being a rideshare driver flames out, she scams her way into a job as an assistant to Rose, the head of a high-end clothing line. Rose is played by Nicole Richie, who is quite chipper even though she can’t deliver a joke without underlining it. Interoffice conflicts — including a jealous receptionist subplot that echoes the first film — are established but mostly DOA, as the film surprisingly finds nothing new to say about workplace dynamics in the 21st century.

Instead, the film moves along at an undemanding pace as Kenny spends money as fast as Tanya can earn it, building a half-pipe in the backyard and throwing major parties. Soon, Tanya will be tasked with saving Rose’s foundering company from being shut down, leading to a fashion show climax in the family backyard which was shot in the same Santa Clarita, CA home as the original film 33 years ago.

It’s Funnier than the Original but Squanders Its Best Idea

Don’t Tell Mom… has a certain amount of charm, mostly thanks to Jones, and there are a number of clever lines in Hayward’s script. In some ways, this film is better than the original (which isn’t saying too much). How the Applegate version became such a cult favorite is a question best left to our finest scientists; ironically, it’s probably because television became society’s babysitter, and the movie frequently aired on cable. The disappointment here is knowing that the filmmakers landed on a fresh reboot idea and then did very little with it, preferring to lean hard into the beats of the original.

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, a Spiral Stairs Entertainment Production in association with Treehouse Productions and Smize Productions, will debut across digital streaming platforms on November 19. It’s streaming on BET+ here, and you can rent or buy it on Apple TV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, or Prime Video.