‘It’s not a nightmare, Monster Girl – it’s just your life!’ 

Adapting his own successful novel into a screenplay, Joe Ballarini carries over all the fun elements of his ‘Babysitter’s Guide’ universe for director Rachel Talalay (Freddy’s Dead, Tank Girl) to bring to life. Harry Potter meets Spy Kids, by way of Men in Black, Percy Jackson and Monsters Inc is probably the best way to sum it all up, but this movie is definitely determined to do its own thing.

Super smart Kelly Ferguson (Tamara Smart, who already has YA acting chops from Artemis Fowl) has the same preoccupations as any other teenage girl: boys and being popular. Unfortunately, because she claimed to have seen a monster when she was five she’s now been dubbed ‘Monster Girl’ and is shunned by all the cool kids. In an effort to turn this around, she’s planning on going to a Halloween party with her mate Tommy (Ashton Arbab from General Hospital), who is dressing up as broccoli: the most feared of all vegetables!

Things don’t go according to plan, however, because Kelly’s mother has lined her up with a babysitting gig – looking after her boss’ boy, Jacob (Ian Ho). But it’s not all bad, because in Jacob Kelly recognises a kindred spirit. In fact, the same things are happening to him that happened to her all those years ago, like being visited by the Grand Guignol (Tom Felton maintaining the Potter link, whilst at the same time doing his best Goblin King impression, complete with singing… ‘That usually works!’). You see, Jacob has the gift of being able to make dreams come to life, which the Grand Guignol and his Toadie minions want to turn to their advantage, creating an army to rule the world.

The only thing stopping them? A secret International Order of Babysitters (former members include people like Merlin and Florence Nightingale) who Kelly comes across when an agent of the Rhode Island Chapter, Liz (Oona Laurence), rocks up on her motorbike to offer assistance. She introduces Kelly to a world of underground tunnels filled with monsters, exploding teddy bears and magical skipping ropes, not to mention the rest of the team she works with: Berna (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), Cassie (Lynn Masako Cheng) and Curtis (Ty Consiglio). Will they be able to get kidnapped Jacob back and stop the planet being overrun by monsters?

If you’re looking for a fun family romp this Halloween half-term, then I can thoroughly recommend giving this one a go. While its inspirations are pretty obvious, including a finale that Shazam! would be proud of, it really does do its own thing and you can’t help liking the characters, getting dragged into the mayhem with them (including meeting the ultimate ‘Cat Woman’ Peggy Drood, played by Indya Moor). There’s also that all-important message about being yourself no matter what… It ends by hinting at a potential sequel, which I’d love to see (beware anyone with arachnophobia, though).

Verdict: ‘Let’s get monster hunting! 7/10’                                                                  

Paul Kane