Written and directed by Lee and Sam Boxleitner, the award-winning Die! Sitter! Die! - Rupert (USA - 2015) is a short film of about 25 minutes that excels in all areas. As the title suggests, the story involves a babysitter (Caitlin Reilly) who, driven by a desperate need for money to get her mother taken care of, will have to look after little Rupert overnight. What starts out as the usual movie about lame babysitters actually gives way to an unusual situation that weighs down, making the atmosphere saturated and magnificently bleak, from the first few minutes.
The villain masterfully played by Lee Boxleitner and cast here as a psychopath is to be commended. Definitely not an easy role. Completely insane, he will try to enact anything his sick mind suggests, shamelessly and without any shame. His actions thus displace not only the protagonist but also the viewer.
Die! Sitter! Die! - Rupert mixes horror, depravity and mental illness by unraveling into an embarrassing and unexpected form of "fetishism" or, rather, a very specific and shocking paraphilia (paraphilic infantilism). A powerful and disturbing short with an outstanding villain.
In the cast of Die! Sitter! Die! - Rupert: Lee Boxleitner, DeMille Cole-Heard and Caitlin Reilly. The film is produced by Matt Laumann. Credit is also due to the careful cinematography (Dave Jacobsen).
Rupert is part of Die! Sitter! Die!, a horror anthology devoted to babysitters.
