Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead review: The kids still rule in this breezy remake

As you may have surmised from the title, Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead is a remake of the popular 1991 film of the same name. The original starred Christina Applegate, coasting on her sitcom fame as the dumb blonde daughter on the popular Fox show Married… With Children, as Sue Ellen Crandell, a 17-year-old girl whose summer is upended by her mother’s travel plans and the unexpected responsibilities thrust on her by the circumstances outlined in the title. The movie was only a minor hit when it was in theaters, but over time it caught on as a favorite video-store rental and cable-channel staple. Even if you weren’t a big fan of Applegate, Married… With Children, or the movie at the time (I wasn’t), it was hard to miss for a while. I still regularly quote one of the movie’s lines, but more on that later.

It’s a universal truth that remakes are generally unnecessary, but as long as they keep making money, studios will keep feeding them to us. If these IP cash grabs are inevitable, the least they could do is provide something new—a fresh perspective on the original, perhaps, or interesting casting. Let’s be real—no one is checking out the new movie based on The Fall Guy for the story. None of the actors (with the exception of Nicole Richie) in this new version of Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead are familiar names, so that’s not the draw here. It does have a few interesting twists, though, and a story that’s almost entertaining enough to justify its existence.

Different generations are bound to come at this material from different angles. That divide plays out in the film’s depiction of the tension between the joy of childhood freedom and the perils of adult responsibility. Nostalgia is an appeal for older viewers here, but the story may hit a bit differently now. The plot is pretty much the same, with some tweaks and updates to modernize it. It eases through the hilarity and misfortune that befall the Crandell children due to fashion industry jobs, fake identity crises, and mounting credit card debt. Their house is even the same as in the original movie.

The new version does raise the stakes in a few significant ways, though. The first and most obvious adaptive choice is the shift to an almost entirely Black cast. In the original film, Sue Ellen’s biggest worry after her babysitter dies is that her mom will come home and end a summer of fun. Here, following the death of the babysitter Mrs. Sturak (June Squibb), the danger is that Tanya (the Sue Ellen of this remake, played by Bel Air’s Simone Joy Jones) and her younger siblings—death-obsessed Melissa (Ayaamii Sledge), naive Zack (Carter Young), and the pointedly unserious Kenny (Donielle T. Hansley Jr.)—will have to deal with CPS and the possibility of their mother (Patricia “Ms. Pat” Williams) getting fired and losing custody of them. And that’s the best-case scenario.

The worst-case scenario is they’ll be accused of killing Mrs. Sturak and jailed or shot by the police. This fear hovers over them for the entire film. Even though they’re only kids, they’re convinced they’ll never be given the benefit of the doubt because they’re Black. Their mother confirms this fear when she returns—early and unexpectedly, as per the genre. A police officer does come to the house after Zack prematurely dials and hangs up on 911. Kenny successfully convinces the cop to leave and then gives Tanya a hard time for forgetting “The Talk” their dad gave them on how to speak to white police officers if they don’t want to get hurt. This is a comedy, so it’s handled light-heartedly, but nevertheless, though the house is beautiful, and the neighborhood is great, the threat still feels very real.

The Crandell family’s circumstances are also very different than in the original film. In the old story, the flighty mom uses the money for her daughter’s European trip for a romantic vacation in Australia. Now, Tanya’s widowed mother is forced to use the money for a relaxation retreat her company has ordered her to attend if she wants to stay employed. If she’s forced to come back for them, she will not get the help and rest she needs, and she’ll also lose her job. Other elements have been adjusted to stay current with the times. Still, there’s no getting past the implausibility of the central premise, which pushed the bounds of believability even back in the ’90s. The plausibility contortions required to make it work in 2024 are even more challenging.

A little bit of context here: actors Christina Applegate, Patricia Williams, and I are all Generation X, a generation well known for minimal adult supervision in our childhood years and the somewhat random behavior of our single parents. In 1991, it wouldn’t be surprising if a parent decided to leave for the summer out of the blue (though hiring a live-in babysitter we’d never met, spoken to, or heard of would raise some eyebrows).

Thirty-three years later, it’s completely ridiculous. Would a Gen X mother hire an old woman she’s just met to look after her precious participation-trophy-awarded, over-protected, summer sports-league-playing, non-peanut-butter-eating children for two months? Very unlikely. Even less likely would be a Black Gen X mother hiring an old white woman to look after her Black children for two months, unsupervised, with no calls, check-ins, or texts. She wouldn’t, because she would fear exactly what happens in the movie—Mrs. Sturak fires a gun in the air 10 seconds after their mother leaves, proclaiming, “I’ve watched Madea, and I know how to handle you little n-words!” followed quickly by some triggering and racially charged discipline.

The tone of Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead is very similar to other Black cast comedy remakes like What A Man Wants and Little, which bring the emotional awareness and context that the original movies (What A Woman Wants and Big, respectively) lacked. Tanya has become the second parent by default, which is why she’s looking forward to traveling with her friends and escaping. Kenny used to have ambition and purpose; now, he smokes pot and makes skateboarding videos all day. Melissa’s screensaver is a pair of feet toe-tagged on a morgue table. Zack is practically a ghost floating from room to room. Living and working together to protect the family over the summer allows them to grow and heal. This is by no means a “deep” movie, but it is a more thoughtful one.

Emmy-nominated screenplay writer Chuck Hayward (Dear White People, Ted Lesso) and director Wade Allain-Marcus (Grown-ish, Insecure) bring some impressive cultural and emotional nuances to the story. They use their experience writing and depicting different aspects of Black upper-middle-class life to actually give us a new take on an otherwise rote teenage coming-of-age comedy. Unsurprisingly, given the backgrounds of the filmmakers, Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead moves at the pace of a good sitcom. Hansely’s delivery of the classic line from the original movie, “The dishes are done!” caused a minute-long laughing fit. And, yes, that’s the line I still use when I finish an unwanted task in the fastest, albeit laziest, way possible.

The sibling chemistry between Hansley and Jones, in particular, is off the charts, as they alternately berate and cheer each other on. Both of them have great timing and make the most of the dialogue they’re given. Nicole Richie’s light, bouncy performance as Tanya’s boss, Rose, is also a welcome surprise. None of the characters come off as flat, really; everyone has a personality, an individual story, and emotional growth. For example, Tanya’s bitchy co-worker Caroline (Iantha Richardson) is angry that Tanya seemingly walked off the street and into the job Caroline wanted. She has the guts to ask Rose why and is taken aback when both Rose and Caroline’s self-proclaimed “Gay Office Husband,” Bruce (Gus Kenworthy), tells her that even though she is very competent, she is also very unpleasant to be around. Bruce encourages her to help Tanya help Rose, which makes Caroline feel better. Until Tanya’s immaturity backfires on her.

As a whole, the remake of Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead is a funny, relatable upgrade. With a zippy runtime of 99 minutes and plenty of laughs throughout, it’s not much of a commitment and certainly worth checking out, whether or not you’re a fan of the original.