Most American children know what Monstober is. Unfortunately for parents, most Monstober films air during the weekdays. This hasn’t deterred kids from watching them — much to the chagrin of elementary school teachers everywhere who have to deal with their sleep-deprived zombie states the next day.
Beginning in 2005, Monstober is a knockoff of Disney’s other more popular movie marathon event, “Happy Holidays.” It spans the entire month of October, airing aggressively average content courtesy of child actors as it undoubtedly milks its cash cow franchise for all that it’s worth.
Unsurprisingly, its films are far from critically acclaimed, but every few years, writers for the event somehow manage to miraculously mess up their status quo and produce a diamond in the rough.
A notable example, in 2011, one of Disney’s best Monstober movies was released: “My Babysitter’s a Vampire.” However, it is questionable whether this should be called a notable year for Disney, because it didn’t technically produce the movie. Instead, they appropriated it from the Canadian television channel Teletoon which had aired it a year prior.
In fact, Disney, in a glaring blunder of judgement, chose to debut the Halloween-themed movie in June. It wasn’t until later years that it was featured during Monstober. Despite this, “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” remains one of the best movies ever featured during Monstober, a statement that doesn’t necessarily award it enough credit considering that its competition featured a human-zombie relationship that overcame government propaganda proliferated through cheerleaders because, yes, that was a real thing.
In contrast to that wet dream of a Wattpad plot, “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” was inspiringly self-aware and almost satirical at times. The film is set in a sleepy small town, finding its titular characters in geeky hero, Ethan, and his Tony-Stark-Wannabe best friend, Benny. Ethan, like most teenagers, is experiencing the growing pains of responsibility and rebellion and, following an unfortunate blunder on his part, is saddled with a babysitter in the form of his classmate, Sarah.
While such a plot could have spun very quickly out of control, all of the characters within the film, are more than well aware of the comedic relief that is poor Ethan’s pitiful need for a babysitter. Sarah, his babysitter, unsurprisingly happens to be a vampire as aptly suggested by the movie’s title.
Her transformation, however, wasn’t done willingly, showing that her aspiring vampire overlord of an ex-boyfriend who turned her, probably never completed his Sex Education and AlcholEdu courses for UR. He, of course, also doesn’t seem to have gone to college — or high school, for that matter — if his master plan of using the souls of “Twilight” fangirls to revive his dead coven was any indication.
Of course, they weren’t technically “Twilight” fangirls because, for copyright reasons, “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” doesn’t feature “Twilight” but instead the (not) heart wrenching “Dusk” saga. In the parody of all parodies, the “Dusk” trilogy follows the twisted love of 17-year-old Rochelle and the-far-too-creepy-for-her vampire, Jakeward. That wasn’t a typo and, if for nothing else, one should watch “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” to view the 10 minutes of cinematic masterpiece that is the “Dusk III: Unbitten premiere.”
If you are not yet convinced to watch the film that could rival “Casablanca,” I would like to present the moving review provided by Molly Boyas. Boyas writes, “Simply brilliant. Loved every second. ‘My Babysitter’s a Vampire’ not only made my day, it made my life whole after my divorce. 11/10.”
Boyas says it all. But “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” is not only for divorcees. It’s a film to watch with your family, friends, and that one guy that you drunk texted a couple weeks back and regret doing so because he never responded, but would certainly respond to view the product of God that is “My Babysitter’s a Vampire.” Because, really, who wouldn’t?
