It's a joke or irony: the main villain in The Nanny's Guide: How to Catch a Monster is called Gran Guignol. No, everything, of course, is more harmless: The Guide is a neat children's fairy tale with elements of horror. Everything here is sterile to purity: instead of creepy added, er, cute monsters resembling genetically mutilated relatives of Mike Wazowski, instead of noble warriors – an underground society of nannies saving children in a guerrilla manner, and instead of a horror spirit – a variation on the theme of “Horrors” by R. L. Stein. In other words, Netflix decided to adapt another youth series of books, not very well known in Russia. As a result, a pilot series of some non-existent series came out: probably, the project was created with a failed idea of a sequel (although time will tell), and as a result, everything came out a little naive, although not without charm.
More than 25 years have passed since director Rachel Tallay had the opportunity to direct something global. Her resume includes “Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy is Dead,” “Ghost in the Car,” and “Tankwoman.” Since then, her talent has only appeared in TV series. The “Nanny’s Guide” gave the director an opportunity to shine, however, it seems that the limitations of the source material made the project more linear than expected. Only in the design of creatures in the form of tentacles, a shadow monster, the main antagonist, you can find a certain ingenuity: otherwise, “The Guide” looks like a bland and standard film.
Kelly is a typical schoolgirl who is still worried about being haunted by ghosts as a child. She has no choice but to live with her eyes wide open, be skeptical and avoid social interactions. On Halloween night, she was left to look after Jacob, the son of Kelly's mother. Soon Jacob is kidnapped by ghosts, but Liz comes to the rescue - a member of the mysterious society of nannies, fighting monsters led by nightmare weaver Gran Guignol.
It seems like the project has enough drive. Inspiration is not enough: Telale and her team were more concerned with the creative side than the conceptual side. Both the cinematography and visuals (which smack of plasticine) are done well for the project from Netflix: especially successful steampunk design in some scenes. However, in general, the atmosphere is lame: adult actors, in particular Tom Felton, do not even try to play, and teenage actors did not particularly understand their purpose. Meanwhile, any remote sense of danger or suspense, which by definition should be inherent in such a film, is completely erased from the script. And then the inefficiency comes into play: some monsters were added to the plot clearly to bookmark for the future, as for the development of the characters. “The Nanny Guide” is so insistently focused on the start of the franchise that it forgets to tell the story.
“Nanny guide: How to Catch a Monster turned out to be a product for its target group: both brave girls and a mystical story for children are present. Fans of “Harry Potter” will attract, most likely, Tom “Draco Malfoy” Felton, and some echoes of the images of Dementors. Nevertheless, the purpose of the Guides did not justify itself: at times the plot is weak, and there is no moral grain at all. The creators of the film did a good job, embodying the spirit of the fairy tale in life, seasoning it all with references, analogies and a decent soundtrack, but still because of its submission, the tape, in my opinion, is inferior to more serious competitors - "Horrors" with their sequel and recent mini-camback "Are you afraid of the dark?"
5 out of 10