My Babysitter's a Vampire (3½ Stars)

Ethan is a 14-year-old boy who lives with his parents and his 8-year-old sister Jane in a sleepy little Canadian town called Whitechapel. When his parents go out they leave him to look after his sister, but he doesn't do a very good job of it, so his parents hire a babysister from his school, 17-year-old Erica. On her first evening Erica is invited to go to a party, so she sends her best friend Sarah to take her place. And that's where the real fun begins. Sarah is a fledgling vampire. As usual, every vampire book, film and tv series redefines vampire mythology. In this case a "fledgling" is a vampire who has not yet drunk human blood. A fledgling can feed on animals for 28 days, but after that he dies if he doesn't drink human blood. Sarah is still in her first week and has already decided to feed on rats as long as possible.

Sarah's ex-boyfriend Jesse is the leader of a vampire cult who is trying to repopulate Whitechapel with vampires after a century of remaining in hiding. Sarah and Ethan, with the help of Ethan's best friend Benny, try in vain to prevent their friends becoming vampires in their battle against Jesse.

This is a fun film that has spawned a television series with the same name. It's a spoof on the whole vampire genre, with frequent references to "Twilight" (called "Dusk" for copyright reasons) and "Vampire Diaries" (called "Bloodsucker Diaries"). It's aimed at young teenagers, even though the characters are older than the characters in the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", which was a more mature show. It has promise, and I'm now interested in seeing how the story continues in the series. I wish I'd had a hot looking babysitter like that when I was 14. Some boys have all the luck!