Watch The Guardian For Free

Simply Perfect

Memorable, crazy movie

good back-story, and good acting

Expected more

When Phil (Brown) and Kate (Lowell) fall pregnant after buying a new house they decide to hire a nanny for when the baby is born. Unfortunately, their first choice is killed by a hit and run driver while she's on a bike ride. Though, luckily for them, the agency send round a replacement. Camilla (Seagrove) is a stunning English nanny who is only too happy to look after baby Jake... any time... all the time... As time goes by Phil starts to feel as though there's something out of place with Camilla, who isn't above using her sexuality to get her way... This, in turn, turns Kate's investigation mode on, only to learn some dark and chilling, hard to believe, truths about their son's guardian...I've never been a great fan of Friedkin's work, though I have to admit he has a magnificent eye for composition and iconic shots (the only thing which kept me awake through the yawn-fest that was The Exorcist - oh controversial). In this film, he has extended his eye for composition into entire scene's and employed some effective lighting techniques, especially in the night time forest sequences. This actually brings it out of the horror genre and into dark fantasy, which seems to fit the story and direction much better. There is a lack of tension, suspense, and fear which are required to make a good horror film. Even the gruesome effects are shot in such a way that they aren't exactly horrific or fear-inducing. They are good and well done. though Friedkin opts to quickly snap between the gore shots. He even adds strange angles to them, which adds more to the fantasy genre and detracts from the horror.This is a tale of old mythologies and tells of evil tree spirits who like nothing better than to eat the souls of newborns. This could easily have been another run of the mill horror flick of the time but it is something more. I just wish that Camilla's drive and reasoning behind her actions had been explained more. This could only have made her character stronger and darker. However, Seagrove adds a nice sensuality and slyness to her... if this woman were an animal she would be the snake that tempted Adam and Eve. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is pretty average, especially the two lead characters, who are verging on two-dimensional stereotypicalness. Even Miguel Ferrer, who I've always rated as a "one-to-watch" actor, appears underused and a tad flat. Only Brad Hall as Ned Runcie comes across as a more rounded character. This may be because his character has lots to do in the story; he's built the house they live in; he becomes their friend; he has a romantic interest in Camilla; he's the first to realise there's something not-quite-right with Camilla. This gives him more depth and scope than the rest of the characters in the story.The special effects are still viable today, the killings of the gang members, though filmed in a strange manner, is well done and looks realistic - given the circumstances. Even the tree bark images and figures are chilling to see and reasonably lifelike, adding to the strength of the fantasy elements.This doesn't work as a horror, though, if you're a fantasy fan and you prefer them with a darker edge then this will probably be up your street. It's at least worth one viewing... but I'd wait until you've not got anything interesting to watch.

Following the birth of their son, a yuppie couple hires a mysterious nanny to care for him only for a series of strange incidents around them eventually causes them to believe that she's sacrificing babies to a spirit being and must race to stop her before she finishes.This was an overall decent effort without too much to really like here. One of the film's few positives here is the way this manages to really make the cult she's a part of seem like a creepy, mysterious entity. The first half here mainly comes off like a series of strange incidents around the house that don't really amount to much, yet all come together to build up a rather chilling concept here of the sacrificial cult. From the constant needling of the breastfeeding onto others, the way she always manages to wind up in the baby's care whenever something happens around them that could endanger them and the slow-burn way it leads into the revelation of her actual identity, so although there's not a whole lot of action here these scenes build up his feeling rather nicely. As well, there are some solid action scenes here featuring the group of thugs encountering her out in the woods and being drawn back to the killer trees which pick them off in rapid succession, the wolves stalking the one witness back to his house and forcing him back through all the different rooms before trapping him in a thrilling sequence and the finale in the woods is a lot of fun with the wolves ambushing them leading into the battle at the tree that gives this one a really frantic and exciting finish. Alongside the great and somewhat gorier kills than expected here, these here are what make this one enjoyable over the film's few flaws. It's two main problems are quite easy to spot and go hand-in-hand with each other, the cheesiness and its sheer ridiculousness. The ridiculousness of it might be its worst offense. There's no way that any of this could happened and the ability to keep it straight-faced and serious is a bit of a stretch to believe. Once it gets to the tree attack late in the film, then it gets too far out there to really become plausible. It just seems so out-of-place in a film about a psychotic nanny. The fact that the mystery surrounding her backstory is quite hard to get into all around and lacks just about any sense of cohesion also doesn't help since the entire concept of the cult is never given here and the only thing we get is their inherent creepiness to sustain us which doesn't last all that long. Though there are some that could be put off by the slow pace as well, as this doesn't move at the fastest point possible as well, these here are the whole of the film's problems.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Language, a mild sex scene and children-in-jeopardy.

Phil and Kate Sterling have moved into one of the remote canyon areas of Los Angeles. Within the year, Kate gives birth to their first baby, who they name Jake. Within a few weeks of the delivery, they make the decision for Kate to return to work as a designer immediately, which means hiring a full-time, live-in nanny.The development of "The Guardian" is a story in itself. Starting off as a book called "The Nanny", it was handed off to Sam Raimi. In retrospect, this seems to make sense given his history with chainsaws and killer trees. But he dropped out to make "Darkman" (a wise choice) and the directing duties were passed to William Friedkin.In Friedkin's hands, two things happen. First, you go from a fun director (Raimi) to a much more serious, award-winning visionary. That is a good thing. And second, you start a series of rewrites, with Friedkin himself writing much of the new material, and you go from a story ostensibly about druids to some sort of adult Grimm's fairy tale that never quite comes across on screen. This is probably bad.The film was disliked in its own time, notoriously making Roger Ebert's hate list alongside everything in Rob Schneider's career. It seems to have been profitable, but poor audience reaction overall doomed it to relative obscurity. (For a director as lauded as Friedkin is, it is surprising how many of his films seem to be completely forgotten.) What really makes this film fail is the pacing. Scenes are drawn out much too long, and where this should be a time to create tension and suspense, we end up just waiting impatiently for the next kill. For what it's worth, the kills are pretty good -- plenty of blood and gore for the horror fanatics who like that sort of thing. But you will be waiting far too long for the payoff, which is disappointing. This all has to be blamed on Friedkin, not the editor, as you can only trim so much.The rest of the crew is notable. Even if the names are not familiar, their work probably is. Cinematographer John Alonzo had done "Chinatown" and "Scarface", and Denise Cronenberg provided the wardrobe. Yes, Denise is a member of that well-known Canadian horror family (she is David's sister).Although not everyone will love this film, for those who have given it a ult following, you might appreciate the Scream Factory blu-ray release. The sound is alright. The picture is less than you might expect from blu, but this is probably due to the original source material. Much of it is no better than what you would expect from VHS, unfortunately. But where Scream shines is with the extras. There are several interviews with the cast and crew, most of which are new. Friedkin himself has more than 15 minutes on camera talking about his work. If you ever wanted to know anything, certainly your question is answered.Most disappointing (and I hate to bash Scream) is the lack of an audio commentary. The earlier Anchor Bay DVD had one (with Friedkin), and you would expect it to be ported over. There must have been an issue with the rights, but regardless of the explanation it is a huge loss and knocks this down from a "must-have" or "day one" purchase to something for serious fans only. (Sorry, Scream, but not every disc can be perfect.)

This movie was totally predictable and not that entertaining. By predictable, I mean the scary part of it, you know the nanny is going to be a bad news, you know they are going to find out and eventually save the baby, as scary movies tends to end that way. But even the method of saving the baby was not surprising, as it happened so fast. I saw this because my fiancé wanted to see it so I did not have any interest. The movie starts with the Alan wanting Molly to go back to work even though she has a baby and does not seem to want to leave her him and they seem to have enough money. Yet Molly goes along with Alan and hires a guardian without any questions. I would have expected her to argue or refuse (well refusing wouldn't work because the nanny is how the story starts). As a matter a fact, Molly makes a joke about how she does not trust her husband with the nanny they interviewed (who they eventually hired) because she is so pretty. At that point they were leaning towards this other woman they interviewed who seemed ideal; a college student majoring in education,with an ambition to teach the child to swim. After she dies, they automatically accept this woman no questions asked, even though to me she seemed very strange, getting to involved in things that should not be her business, such as her obsession over her belief of breast feeding. Regardless of all this, the very protective mother, who didn't even want to leave the child in the first place, accepts this nanny and does not even bother to check her references. After that, she lets the nanny practically raise the child, letting her take baths with him naked and the father waled in. Although I have family in England and they are not as uptight with nudidty, (which is fine) I think a nanny bathing with a baby naked would be questionable. This movie contained such annoying nonsense. The nanny actually wanted to kidnap the baby so she could feed it to the tree, and actually she was the spirit of the tree, which is not a particularly scary or interesting story line. They had this really weird sex scene; it is not uncommon for horror movies to have sex scenes, but this was weird. Alan had a dream of the nanny magically appearing and having sex with him, without his concent and it was not like some fantasy or anything; he seemed freaked out. He never seemed interested her that way and she never showed any interest in him romantically or any men for that matter, so what was the point of that scene? As a matter a fact, her only focus was feeding the baby breast milk so she could feed him to the tree. They tried to hook her up with their friend causing him to find out that she was doing something strange in the forest, which he learned when he followed her out one night she had off, to ask her to go out with him. This is not a story line that would be scary for adults; it sounds likes something from a children's fairy tale.