Director: William Friedkin
Writer: Stephen Volk, Dan Greenburg, William Friedkin (Screenplay) Dan Greenburg (Novel)
Starring: Jenny Seagrove, Dwier Brown, Carey Lowell, Brad Hall, Miguel Fereer, Natalija Nogulich, Theresa Randle, Xander Berkeley
Plot: A young couple with a newborn baby don’t realize that the nanny they hired is a magical nymph who sacrifices infants to an evil tree.
Tagline – Tonight, while the world is asleep… an ancient evil is about to awaken.
Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Guardian starts when a couple Phil (Brown) and Kate (Lowell) move to a new town to start a new family and hire a live-in nanny Camilla (Seagrove) they believe their life is about to be everything they wanted.
When Camilla starts acting strange around the house, it becomes clear to us that she has her own plans for the new-born baby, looking to take it to sacrifice to an evil tree that will defend her every move.
Thoughts on The Guardian
Characters & Performances – Phil and Kate are the couple that have the baby, they are trying to get their careers back on path, with their joint decision to hire Camilla, they want the best and will accept someone into their life to help them. Camilla is the nymph nanny that is hired, with her own desires to make the newborn baby her latest sacrifice to an evil tree. Jenny Seagrove is the right type of creepy for this role, making her character filled with the caring side, but having her own sinister side. The other people we meet are family friends that are here to support the family and their decisions.
Story – The story here follows a couple trying to start a new life with a new baby that will see themselves hiring a nanny who has their own motivation for getting close to a baby for own sacrifice plans. This is a story that will dive into parental control and putting the trust into the wrong people, we have seen plenty of the disturbed nanny stories in the past, with this one taking us into the supernatural path giving it a fresh feeling. The story might be filled with the idea that we know what is happening, it does however fall short on showing us much about the parents away from the baby, as we literally have five scenes which cover nearly a year in less than five minutes, not giving us enough time to learn the true desires of the careers they want to follow. When it comes to someone targeting a baby, we know this is going to be an easy sell to created added horror in a story.
Themes – The Guardian is a horror mystery that will show a couple looking to protect their baby from a nymph that wants to sacrifice it, this is a horror no parent will ever want to go through, with someone targeting their baby, especially one they thought they could trust around it. When it comes to the evil tree that is the shrine, we get the strongest moments of effects, when the tree comes to life to come after victims, increasing even more fear to the story.
The Guardian is a creepy movie that targets the parental love for a baby being targeted by evil.