Emelie

***½

At the heart of Emelie is the ultimate terror of hiring the wrong babysitter, borne out of false pretense. “Anna” appears to be an ideal replacement for the missing babysitter who didn’t show up for an innocuous reason later explained in this rapid chatterbox style. Within a few minutes the usual babysitter is dead and the current psycho in charge plots to get rid of her body. Describing herself as “cracked” after a “bedtime story” to the middle child, Christopher, “Anna” explains her loss of a child and the escape with her “skinny hyena” (the father and twisted boyfriend she texts throughout, planning to capture Christopher, her “new cubbie”) with new identities. Assuming the name of a woman she kills, her mate takes the car and watches the couple whose children Emelie babysits while the plot to secure Christopher takes shape throughout the night. Mommy and Daddy enjoy an anniversary supper out while the “skinny hyena” eyeballs them from the stolen car outside. Emelie, meanwhile, misbehaves in ways that would probably leave many a parent quite squirmy.

Emeilie considers herself the Mama bear, even using mommy when trying to lure away their father’s gun from Christopher! During the course of the film before Maggie (Elizabeth Jayne) intrudes upon her plans, throwing a monkey wrench into Emelie’s kidnapping of Christopher, we see the disturbing aspects of the title character’s personality unfold, the curtain gradually unfurled until the monster behind it is in full view. Emelie, upon first meeting her, doesn’t show any real signs of disturbia. She doesn’t appear to be riddled with psychosis. The signs of someone seriously unsettled don’t slap the father (Chris Beetem) in the face nor does it rattle open to the mother (Susan Pourfar). She just looks like this fresh-faced, easily accessible, cool, and friendly young woman without any flashing lights that would indicate lunatic so the parents aren’t too concerned about who they are leaving their children with. When Daddy and “Anna” arrive home, she immediately gains trust from Christopher and Sally (Thomas Bair and Carly Adams), still kiddies with energy and spirit to spare. This night out is much deserved and Mommy and Daddy are glad to have a babysitter available to give them the chance for a breather. If only it wasn’t this babysitter.

Jacob (Joshua Rush) is that eleven year old kid with certain rebellious tendencies. He fusses with his siblings and is a bit difficult at times. He’s nearing that age of a teenager where listening to his parents, being obedient, and responsibly agreeing to do as he’s told become tested and tried…it takes extra effort and a raised vocal pitch to get results. Emelie, when the parents leave, assuages Jacob’s yearnings for being naughtier than usual. Allowing him to see her in the bathroom during a menstrual episode, asking Jacob to get her a tampon, Emelie unveils that dark side soon to become full bloom crazy. The “movie time” where Emelie finds a sex tape of their parents, expecting the kids to watch! Her feeding Sally’s pet hamster to Jacob’s python (!) while the kids are forced to watch (Sally’s face is held by Emelie forward to the snake case until she bites her hand to get away!). The Maggie assault. Cutting off the electricity to the house. Yelling at the kids. Slapping Jacob for challenging her. Ordering the children to remain silent when Maggie shows up. Emelie’s cool wears off and what lies behind the falsehoods of her faux identity puts those kids in serious danger. Christopher is the goal while the other two are objects in her way. To Jacob’s credit, he meets a friend in a treehouse the two frequent, communicating to each other often via walkie talkies. If he hadn’t, Emelie would have suffocated him with a pillow.

Easily, to me, the most haunting scene is the changing of hands with the gun. Emelie knows of the gun and has its case on the bed. Leaving it carelessly (but purposely) on the bed, soon Sally and Jacob are talking about it. By this point, Emelie has proven to be quite disturbed. Jacob points the gun at her with Emelie encouraging him to shoot…until Christopher arrives upsetting this whole situation. Then Christopher has the gun, pointing it at Emelie, in the make-believe mindset of being the hero while she was the villain. That is when Emelie proves to be damn near fearless. Or maybe Emelie just doesn’t give a fuck. To stare down a gun aimed right between her eyes, held by a child who doesn’t know better, it does speak volumes about Emelie’s state of mind. Her face doesn’t show any terror. The face doesn’t reveal a lot of anything unless she’s challenged. When challenged, that dark side doesn’t just wave hello but gives out a primal scream.

I have noticed this described as a slow burn. I guess that is as apt a way of putting a label to it as anything else. It is like the python, though. It coils you tightly within its lean running time of 80 minutes. Emelie watches the parents leave and sets her plot in motion. Wearing that mask until the father and mother move on their merry way, Anna is a persona that fades until only Emelie remains. How she watches attentively and excitedly as the python kills and eats the hamster, and later quite caught up in the sex tape as the kids are left so uncomfortable (and why wouldn’t they be???), Emelie tells us through such behavior that any form of decency/normalcy was missing. Missing is the realization that showing kids the horrible deeds committed by her would leave scars and impact their lives forever. So the film, in 80 minutes, does all this.

The film has this allure to it. Faces often captured in their most open moments, even when trying to hide how they feel, the camera is inquisitive to get what it can. Michael Thelin has many credits tied to musical acts and MTV/YouTube. A camera willing to bandy about instead of rest fixed on ongoing story is a style quite common today. The steadicam (oxymoron) method employed here and the typical editing procedure where action is always moving with little room to relax, perhaps the use of “slow burn” isn’t quite as apt a description as first thought. The story maybe is that, but the style of the film resists slow burn’s attachment of methodical lethargy. Thelin’s aesthetic doesn’t bother me, though. I like a long pan, don’t get me wrong, but not everyone has to do that. Some just want to get on with it. There are students of film that want to give the audience what they need, not wide-scope, long-take Altman-esque techniques zeroing in on characters/plot like a fly closing in from the sky, or an investigative, curious eye catching something that interests it, lured to get a closer look. Thelin obviously wants to give us actions and reactions, cutting out any length that fattens up a scene beyond what is desired. Emelie and her actions, with us reacting to her bad behavior, and the children certain to be harmed by her if the parents don’t get home in time. Jacob, however, “mans up” and responds because those siblings need him. Fireworks in a garbage can might be a start. Maybe dad’s sports car under the tarp wouldn’t hurt, either. The ending, though, maybe stretches credibility beyond what was needed. Get hit by a car. I wonder if you will be able to hobble away so easily.

Sarah Bolger is out there. I wasn’t all that familiar with her, but she’s a marvel here. She’s busy right now. Mainly Sarah seems to appear in cult fare. So I imagine I’ll certainly see her again. That face is amazing and reveals a lot. It is the whole body, too. The way she changes her style of sitting on a couch or bed. The little things that I pay attention to. I just think she kills it. Totally attentive to her presence, watching Bolger’s every move, I think she is just fascinating. Quite a performance. This can be quite a midnight movie that might make the cable/satellite rounds for the foreseeable future. It kind of has that look and feel to it.