Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead is a movie I have only vaguely heard of since 1991. I was way too young for this movie when it came out but my wife suggested we watch it on Hulu the other night as she was a fan of the movie. I was quick to notice Christina Applegate who had done this movie a few seasons into her tenure with Married with Children on Fox.

Christina Applegate plays Sue Allen the eldest sister in a big family. Her mom wants to leave the family for a month and go to Australia.

So her mommy hires a decrepit old woman to be the babysitter. Who turns out to be a horrible person that treats children as if they were army soldiers in boot camp.

Luckily for the kids, the mean old lady dies of natural causes pretty darn quick. And they (highly illegally) dispose of her body just to make sure their mom doesn’t come back from Australia early.

But it turns out that giving her body away so it could be properly buried was also where the money their mom gave the babysitter went. So to avoid starving to death, Sue Allen gets a job.

And after quitting a hot dog place, she gets luckily appointed to an executive assistant job for a clothing company. I actually really enjoyed her time there and her boss was strangely likable too.

But that jealous receptionist was a total biatch.

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead isn’t the greatest film in the world and I’m not entirely shocked that it wasn’t a critical hit back in the early 90s. It gained a cult following at the rental places and on TV and I could see why because it definitely appeals to women who grew up in the 1990s like my wife. It’s still likeable enough for men as well, as I liked it but I don’t think I loved it like my wife did. It’s a little cheesy, can be predictable, but I don’t regret watching it.