The House Sitter (2015 TV Movie) User Reviews

Sister, Let's Play House

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 28 August 2016]

"Lacey" and "Billy" arrive at her former home, after a period of parental estrangement. Unfortunately, they walk in on a tragic and terrifying scene. While the credits roll, the story changes abruptly to a cold winter setting. In a larger Massachusetts home, a young woman examines every nook and cranny of her environment. She is especially interested in old family photographs. As an opening voice-over reveals, this is "House Sitter" Ashley Dulaney (as Rebecca). As you'll immediately decipher, Ms. Delaney has an unnatural interest in her employer's family. And, yes, she is immediately recognizable as a possibly deranged "Lifetime" TV movie character. When the family cuts their vacation short, Dulaney finagles an invitation to stay over because she supposedly has no place to go while awaiting her next house-sitting job...

The family consists of furniture-restoring Kate Ashfield (as Sarah), her somewhat sullen husband Sean O'Bryan (as Kyle Lawrence) and their gloomy daughter Shelby Young (as Amy). Everyone is sad because another daughter, Lauren, recently died in a tragic drowning. Perky in pink, Dulaney begins to ingratiate herself into the host family. This story, written by Marcy Holland, adheres to its formula. Dulaney is engaging as the seemingly psycho house sitter. Direction by Jim Issa is strong and Ms. Young is especially convincing as the somewhat neglected daughter who suspects Dulaney may not be all there. There should be a stronger tie-in with "Lacey" and "Billy". Also, a line about transportation being affected by the snowy weather conditions would have helped explain why the family allows Dulaney to overstay her welcome.

***** The House Sitter (12/27/2015) Jim Issa ~ Ashley Dulaney, Kate Ashfield, Shelby Young, Sean O'Bryan

"Welcome Home" to Lifetime at its most routine

[mgconlan-1 · 6/10 · 4 January 2016]

The film was a Lifetime movie called "The House Sitter" — note that it's three words instead of two, though it's an oft-used title: IMDb.com lists a "Housesitter" (one word, no article) from 2007 ("Waitress Elise's dream to become a painter isn't going anywhere, unlike her ex Gerry's, so she eagerly accepts to house-sit a month the country estate eccentric gentleman Frank inherited), a "The Housesitter" from 2012 ("For more than a century an elite secret society from a prestigious New England university has engaged in a macabre rite of passage. Now, a rival they did not know they had has sent a killer") and another "The House Sitter" from 2015 ("A house sitter considers the possibility he may not be alone; after he starts hearing strange noises during the night"). The fact that this title has been used so often may explain why this one was originally filmed under the title "Welcome Home" — though it's cut so closely to the Christine Conradt format, albeit written and directed by others (Marcy Holland is the writer and Jim Issa — any relation to Darrell? — is the director), they might as well have called it "The Perfect Housesitter." It's basically the same-old, same-old Lifetime formula that's got pretty threadbare after they've been making these movies for over a decade. It begins with a confusing prologue in which a young woman and her boyfriend come to the home of her parents, from whom she's been estranged for years, and finds that they're seated at the dining table with their throats slit. Through most of the film I was unclear as to whether that was going to be the denouement we should expect from the main story or whether that was a crime committed by the title character similar to what she was planning to do to the other central characters.

The main characters are the Lawrences: father Kyle (Sean O'Brien), mother Sara (Kate Ashfield) — who speaks with an impeccable upper-class British accent throughout; presumably Kyle, whose own vocal tones are nasal American Midwest, met and married a British woman lo those many years ago — and their two daughters. One of them, Lauren, the older, died before the main action begins — she fell through the ice at a frozen lake where the Lawrences were vacationing — and the other, younger daughter Amy (Shelby Young) is alive but all too conscious that her parents considered her second-best when her sister was alive and still do even though she's now the only one they've got. Amy is dating a cute guy named Travis (Guyon Brandt) but draws back from having sex with him. The titular house sitter is Rebecca (Ashley Dulaney, who turns in a nice psycho performance, though these nice psycho performances are starting to impress me less and less simply because as a regular Lifetime watcher I've seen too damned many of them — indeed, as engagingly twitchy as Dulaney is, I think Young as Amy out-acts her!), who agreed to look after the Lawrences' home while the three of them went on some sort of business trip that ended early. Rebecca pleads with the Lawrence parents that she has no place to stay since the residents of the next house she's supposed to house-sit are still there and aren't planning to leave for a few more days. No problem, says Mrs. Lawrence (Mr. Lawrence is a bit more dubious, as usual in these productions); Rebecca can stay in their guest room — though Rebecca "accidentally" takes a wrong turn and ends up in the dead sister Lauren's old room, which the Lawrences have kept unchanged as a sort of shrine to her. Amy goes ballistic when she sees Rebecca pawing through her sister's belongings, but Rebecca apologizes in her best smarmy, mock-sincere manner. The House Sitter is a pretty ordinary example of the Lifetime formula, a bit below par because writer Holland and director Issa tread on the thin edge of risibility through most of the film and go over it a few times — though they do create some chilling moments, including the scene towards the end in which Rebecca is holding a gun on Amy and telling her she no longer belongs in the family, and Amy is somehow able to hold on to her composure in spite of this stranger "hooking" all her worst fears about her parents looking down on her and wishing it had been she who had died instead of her sister.

What did I just watch?

[sirscumish · 1/10 · 22 May 2022]

Plot holes galore. I know this is said quite a bit on this site, but this TRULY IS A WASTE OF TIME! The ending (if you want to call it that) is as stupid as they come. Nothing gets explained. Don't say you haven't been warned.

What happened to the lady in the antique shop? What happened to the boyfriend? What happened to the house sitter? What happened to the ending?

Irritating psycho Rebecca!

[haroot_azarian · 26 February 2022]

I agree with some of the contributors. Rebecca/Claire was extremely annoying. Her voice just irritates you from beginning to end! Mother is a total idiot. Father is sensible but clueless. Amy is the heroine of the movie. Loved the soundtrack. Especially Long Hard Train by Les Sampou! Overall one of the better TV movies!

Careful who babysits your house

[phd_travel · 7/10 · 3 March 2019]

The warning of the week is careful who to let baby sit your house. Here the wacko is a needy girl who wants to be part of their family. The family is mourning the loss of one of their 2 daughters. She seems nice but tries too hard as she infiltrates the family as she stays with them when the family returns early. It's a plausible scenario.

Not a bad movie ! Even good for a fridayevening

[dehaeck · 9/10 · 23 August 2019]

Not a movie I would rent cause as a 36 year old guy but this was on tv and I let it play. Most tv movies suck at good stories and acting but this one i pretty believable. Dialogs are not strong as in a A movie but I liked it and watched it out.

The Homely House Sitter

[geoffox-766-418467 · 27 July 2017]

This lame tale of a nutty house sitter doing her evil work to a normal family going through the loss of the daughter is about as predictable as you can imagine. This nut case is downright homely and annoying to look at and that whiny voice of hers could drive anyone crazy. I found it hard to watch her acting as well. So obvious in her snooping. The young daughter of the family is very good and you root for her. Mama and Papa have no idea what is going on and fall for the killer bitch's tales. But the daughter is wise and eventually give the girl her up pence. I was slightly bored with this film as it was too obvious and no one would let a house sitter stay when they aren't needed. The ending couldn't come soon enough.

"Something is Not Right"

[lavatch · 8/10 · 8 October 2019]

A grief-stricken family is still recovering from the loss of a daughter when a house sitter strives to manipulate the parents into accepting her as the deceased daughter's replacement. All hell breaks looks as the house sitter plots her dastardly deeds on the nice family.

The house sitter from hell goes by the name Rebecca. But a perceptive old lady working in the local antique store recognizes her as Clair, who was a house sitter for the Peterson family in a neighboring town. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson died in a house fire. Shortly after identifying Rebecca as "Clair," the antique deal is murdered.

Rebecca now settles in to the home life of a lovely couple, Sara and Kyle. Their daughter Amy was racing on the ice with her sister Lauren. When the ice broke, Lauren drowned. The family is still trying to cope with the loss, and Lauren's old bedroom is maintained as a shrine.

The most interesting character in the film is Amy, who has never come to terms with the guilt that she feels over her sister's death. She also believes that Lauren was the favorite of her parents, who subliminally blame Amy for the tragedy. On top of everything, Amy must now co-exist with an interloper who is angling to move in permanently with the family.

Rebecca tries to sell the family on a sob story about her own traumatic past and heroic struggle for recovery. For a brief stretch, Sara buys into Rebecca's story and begins to accept Rebecca as a surrogate daughter. But it is Amy who is relentless in getting to the truth. It is Amy who first recognizes that "something is not right" with Rebecca.

There were some loose ends in the film, including an explanation of why the death of the antique dealer did not raise the suspicions of the family. Another untidy plot element was Amy's boyfriend Travis, who is seduced and apparently murdered by Rebecca. Poor Travis was not even given a proper funeral in the film. But in the end, it is the memory of the close relationship of Amy and her sister Lauren that sustains her through the ordeal with Rebecca and leads her to triumph over the evil machinations of monster.

She's not who she supposes to be

[mmunier · 25 April 2017]

Well that's a spoiler for you if you have not already read many presentations of this story! But this is all what it's about! Nonetheless I thought it was quite entertaining as the attraction is to find how far this pretty sitter will go to achieve what she wants. And I felt they did a fairly good job to keep you interested as predictable as these topics are. That's right this one sitter is not what you want to look after your house when you discover what she's about! And she does it with much aplomb. I enjoyed it until the very end that seemed to have been finish in hurry as they did not know how to end it. Don't try to guess why I reviewed it but if you do don't ask me as I have no idea, just like the ending...I had to do it.