The Captive Nanny (2020 TV Movie) User Reviews

Not Bad - Until the Ending

[Stoshie · 4/10 · 13 June 2020]

This actually started out as a decent thriller. But then it devolved into the typical Lifetime formulaic type of movie. I mean, c'mon, a room full of pictures of the bad guy's obsession? Really? Again? And we have the usual one naive character that doesn't see the problems right in front of them, and sticks around long past the time any normal person would have bolted. Then we have the quick ending, right after the last commercial, with a girl fight (really? Again?), and an aftermath that defied all logic. All straight from the Lifetime list of plot points that all their movies seem to require to be picked from.

Too bad. I actually though we had something unique here for Lifetime. For about half an hour. But then the writing fell apart quickly.

4 stars only for the somewhat unique beginning.

Nothing That a Major Rewite Couldn't Fix

[zorroaca · 5/10 · 15 June 2021]

Slow and a lot of the time far fetched. The acting jumped back and forth between not that bad to... you got to be kidding me. Parts made you want to like the film... only to find yourself let down. Ending was cute but the patient had died by then.

Pretty good for a Lifetime movie

[AustinMorgan776 · 6/10 · 31 May 2020]

Honestly was not expecting much as usual since Lifetime churns out these thrillers one after the other, but this one was actually decent! The ending was definitely the strongest part of the film, like all of these Lifetime thrillers, but the mystery aspect was also intriguing. It was interesting to see how the main character began to unravel what happened to the previous nanny. There's really not much else for going this movie, but I was still entertained!

Captive Nanny? Or The Au Pair Nightmare?

[jessicahouseford-187-295741 · 1/10 · 4 June 2020]

Was almost identical to the movie The Au Pair Nightmare that came out a few weeks ago. Pretty much the same story line. Waste of my time!

Definitely loosely based on a true story

[maelipscomb · 2/10 · 21 June 2020]

Look up Sabrina Kouider, and her partner Ouissem Medouni. Sabrina was obsessed with her ex and thought her nanny was spying on her for him. This is DEFINITELY that story.

Ugh

[robg-46448 · 1/10 · 10 June 2020]

Do I need to say anything else? The only reason that I am still writing is to satisfy the minimum length requirement to even leave a review. This movie was so bad that it caused physical pain in my joints

VIEWS ON FILM review of The Captive Nanny

[burlesonjesse5 · 7/10 · 24 June 2020]

"I think they're gonna kill me". Oh yeah, that's reassuring. I guess I'll check au pair off my career list.

Anyway, 2020's The Captive Nanny is my latest review. And in the tradition of the entity in The Amityville Horror yelling "get out!", I felt compelled to say the same thing to the pushover childminder in "Captive". Heck, she needn't be in that reconnaissance house for more than a half hour (hint, hint).

Clocking in at a running time of 100 minutes (with brief commercials) and billed as a thriller with a touch of the "violence of the mind", The Captive Nanny's layered plot goes like this: A young woman who can't adopt and ends up splitting from her boyfriend, decides to take a job as a live-in nanny with a creepy family bent on watching her every move. When said family loses said woman's trust, they confine her to her room and hold her against her will.

The performances in "Captive" are solid with Karynn Moore playing nanny Chloe and Austin Highsmith and Michael Aaron Milligan playing psychotic parents Emily and Michael. Highsmith is the standout and she slowly slides off rails channeling snide villainy, mild rage, and tortured manipulation.

Watching The Captive Nanny, you eventually want her to suffer because she's also a cuckoo stalker. You want Highsmith's Emily to get what's coming to her and its defeating that Moore's Chloe doesn't have the gumption to at least fight back or break a darn window.

"Captive", with all its Flowers in the Attic leavings and its ode to all things invasion of privacy, is one of your more effective Lifetime movie endeavors. It's frustrating, upsetting, gnawing, and bends the spectrum of TV-made, psychological terror. Observing The Captive Nanny in all its crippled sterility, you feel as if you are also "under lock and key". Rating: 3 stars.

Too absurd

[phd_travel · 2/10 · 6 June 2020]

There have been a few of these absurd crazy employer trapping a nanny shows. Also involving a crazy fan of a star. Don't get the motivation for the wacko.

It is not interesting. Don't bother.

Lifetime goes horror

[pmtelefon · 7/10 · 31 May 2020]

"The Captive Nanny" plays like a horror movie. It's weird and creepy. There was a lot of "get out of the house" going on watching this movie. The cast all does a very nice job, especially Karynn Moore. Moore gives a very good performance. "The Captive Nanny" is a different kind of Lifetime movie and I liked it.

Sorta good idea but the screen writing and plot were horrible!

[TruthSeeker4Life · 3/10 · 6 June 2020]

The actors were decent, especially the crazy lady, but the screen writing was horrible. The main actress was good too but its hard to like the acting when the plot is so lame! Especially when the guy takes her to her friends house and then stays there and then follows them when they walk. If that wasn't creepier than hell then I do not know what is! I don't think in real life anyone would continue the job at that point but the fact she stayed was when I lost all interest in the movie. Then the friend and her cop husband never get invovled again except for when the friend makes the one threat when she stops by which was lame and unrealistic. THe most unrealisitic part was the husband! In what world would a guy not know that the woman was that crazy? The fact he didn't know she was nuts and making it all up made this movie atrocious! Whoever wrote this movie and decided to make it like this should never have that opportunity again! This was beyond novice and honestly should reconsider what they are doing making movies. Not sure if it was the producer or director but it was a total fail! Cringeworthy fail!

Quirky thriller but good and well-written!

[Chartreuse1 · 8/10 · 1 June 2020]

Chloe wants to adopt a child and becomes a live-in nanny to a very unlikely family to do that. Trouble is the family harbors many secrets and Chloe stumbles on to them and endangers her life and those around her. Karynn Moore does a wonderful job as the captive nanny and Austin HIghsmith is bizarre as Emily, her employer. Definitely recommend and would watch again.

This one was actually good

[darkmomo-81831 · 7/10 · 19 September 2023]

And by good I mean it was entertaining, which can be a hit or miss with Lifetime movies. This one however? Yeah, it kept me hooked from start to finish. Even as I was screaming at the girl to not be a moron, because she was in fact a moron, I couldn't help but to watch.

The acting wasn't bad at all. I mean the crazy one really was CRAZY and it showed. Slowly at first and then all at once. The plot was believable, I wanted to kill everyone as it went along and yeah, this one was a hit.

I've had several misses with my last few Lifetime movie shows and this one was awesome. It even felt like a horror movie at some point. Still not perfect, but hey, it kept me up and working.

I'm disgusted

[searcynautica · 1/10 · 2 April 2021]

This movie was so damn horrible . It pissed me off at every angle , I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone . They would waste their time like I did watching this .

This was the worst 2 hours of my life

[jasrainey-32329 · 1/10 · 2 April 2021]

This movie was a absolute disgrace and should not have even been shown to the Public . I was filled with anger the entire time !!!!!!!! I DO NOT RECOMMEND this was the worst movie I have ever seen in my life.

Actually based on a true story

[candicemansour · 1/10 · 5 February 2021]

They stole the ENTIRE story line from Sophie lionnets murder and did not even acknowledge that. Disgusting and quite sad.

Ready or Not!!!

[lavatch · 5/10 · 6 May 2021]

It is curious that "The Captive Nanny" and "The Au Pair Nightmare" were films produced during the pandemic. The screenplays are built around the same narrative formula and character types. Perhaps the Lifetime production team was attempting to economize by building two films around one scenario.

The focus in both films is on a dedicated nanny who accepts a job in a household where the two strange parents are keeping a child a virtual prisoner. In the case of "The Captive Nanny," Chloe accepts the job at a time when she has broken up with her boyfriend Rob. She relishes the opportunity to care for little Tommy. They regularly play a game of hide-and-go-seek in which the tag line is "Ready or Not!!!" There will eventually come a time where Tommy's secret hiding place will be a matter of life and death for Chloe.

In both "The Captive Nanny" and "The Au Pair Nightmare," the nanny character is far too slow in recognizing that her employers are sociopaths. Slowly, Chloe recognizes that Emily is obsessed with a singer named Baz Martin whom she has been stalking for years and now wants to use Chloe to assist her in going backstage through the efforts of Chloe's ex-boyfriend Rob.

In addition to failing to recognize the pathology in Emily, Chloe is also passive as she fails to stand up to her employers and try to escape from the home. The film's climax was clumsy in the mad scramble backstage at the theater, followed by an equally unbelievable denouement in which Chloe and Rob implausibly are able to adopt young Tommy.

I gave "The Au Pair Nightmare" the score of 7, based on the over-the-top dragon lady Alessandra. Her counterpart, Emily, in "The Captive Nanny" was much more subdued and less interesting. The static nature of the latter film and the awkward ending resulted in an average film in a recycled screenplay, and hence the score of 5.

UGH!

[perriandre · 1/10 · 17 December 2022]

Absolute GARBAGE! I watched to maybe 3/4 of the film and was so disgusted with myself. I know it's a movie but, omg. What utter rubbish! I simply CANNOT believe that someone would stoop so low, way beneath the 'stoop low' level, as to write and actually go forward as to make that a film (flim flam) and expect that people would or should watch, and not feel like they wanted to throw up. I truly hope that whoever produced this dastardly banality will not have the opportunity to put out another piece of shizzle as this. And to that end, I will NEVER watch another movie on lifetime movie network ever again!