Plot
Five kids are left home when their mother leaves town on a three-month vacation, only to have their geriatric babysitter die of a heart attack, leading to the eldest teen, Sue Ellen, to scam her way into taking a job at a hip Los Angeles fashion company to feed and support her needy siblings.

Release Year: 1991

Rating: 5.6/10 (12,296 voted)

Director: Stephen Herek

Stars: Christina Applegate, Joanna Cassidy, John Getz

Storyline
Single Mother goes away for the summer. The kids are first delighted but then find that Mom has hired the sitter from hell to stay with them. When the sitter dies of a sudden coronary they deposit the body at a mortuary only to discover all their Summer expense money was in her purse. The kids must find a way to survive the summer without mom or her money. This means actual work!

Writers: Neil Landau, Tara Ison

Cast:
Christina Applegate - Sue Ellen Crandell
Joanna Cassidy - Rose Lindsey
John Getz - Gus
Josh Charles - Bryan
Keith Coogan - Kenny Crandell
Concetta Tomei - Mom
David Duchovny - Bruce
Kimmy Robertson - Cathy
Jayne Brook - Carolyn
Eda Reiss Merin - Mrs. Sturak
Robert Hy Gorman - Walter Crandell
Danielle Harris - Melissa Crandell
Christopher Pettiet - Zach Crandell
Chris Claridge - Lizard
Jeff Bollow - Mole

Taglines: No rules. No curfews. No nagging. No pulse.

Release Date: 7 June 1991

Filming Locations: 15548 Iron Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, California, USA

Gross: $25,196,249 (USA)

Runtime: 102 min

Trivia:
Filmed during the summer of 1990.

Goofs:
Audio/visual unsynchronized: At the beginning of the movie, Kenny arrives home with a marijuana plant in a bag, which he puts on his window. The plant falls down and we hear a ceramic pot breaking, yet when Kenny was putting the plant down, we could clearly see the pot was plastic, not ceramic.

Quotes:
Kenny Crandell: Um... what should we do with her body?
Sue Ellen "Swell" Crandell: Call an ambulance, call the cops, I don't know. Well... I mean they're gonna come and get her and they're gonna ask us a lotta questions...
Kenny Crandell: They'll probably blame us.
Sue Ellen "Swell" Crandell: [scared of the thought] They'll definitely call Mom!
Melissa Crandell: SHE'LL blame us.
Kenny Crandell: Yeah, she'll hop the next flight home and then be in our faces... yelling at us for ruining her vacation.
Sue Ellen "Swell" Crandell: I don't want Mom to come home.
Zach Crandell: I don't either.
Melissa Crandell: No way.
Walter Crandell: Me too.

"Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead"- 8/10. Christina Applegate brings humor to this classic 80's style movie.

Rating:

Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead (1991)

This is one of the best and the last 80's style comedies along the lines of "Uncle Buck". Sue Ellen (Christina Applegate) is the oldest of 3 brothers- Kenny (Keith Coogan), Walter (Robert Gorman), Zach (Christopher Pettiet) , and 1 sister- Melissa (Danielle Harris). Excited about her mom leaving for Australia on vacation, Sue Ellen is expecting to have a great summer- that is until she discovers she is going to be "babysat" by the evil Mrs. Sturak- a mean, grumpy old hag who gives you book reports instead of letting you watch television in the evening. Then, Mrs. Sturak dies- leaving Sue Ellen and her four siblings to survive the summer, prompting her to get a job to support her brothers and sister, put food on the table, and learn the true meaning of responsibility. This movie has some laughs and is pretty fun and entertaining. A good family comedy. 8/10.

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