Point Horror: The Babysitter II (R.L. Stine)

Jenny survived her bout with Mr. Hagen and now sees a psychiatrist multiple times. She explains that a neighbor wants her to babysit and she isn’t sure she wants to, but her mom is kind of pushing her because they need the money. On her way out, his creepy nurse Miss Gurney compliments her on her shirt. Then she runs into Chuck, her former boyfriend. Chuck can’t seem to get it through his head that she doesn’t want to see him anymore.

Jenny starts her new job and the boy is an insane little monster. Eli has pet tarantulas, loves gruesome horror movies, builds computers for fun and is way too smart for his age. He tricks Jenny into sticking her hand in the tarantula and then laughs like crazy.

After hanging out with her friends Rick and Claire at the mall, she meets a cute guy named Cal. They do some flirting and he asks her out. Their date is almost a disaster, as he takes her to a lame party where all people do is drink beer and make out. They go ice skating, kiss some more and she really likes him. When he drops her off, she hears something rustling in the bushes and then sees a figure run off across the yard.

Then Jenny starts getting calls while sitting. The voice repeats the same phrases that Hagen used, including “company’s coming.” At first she thinks it’s Cal because he starts stalking her and acting weird, but she decides he wouldn’t do that. Then she suspects Eli because he has a phone that his parents don’t know about and he keeps calling her at random times.

It doesn’t help that she starts having nightmares about Hagen climbing out of the quarry. Of course because it’s a Stine book we have multiple suspects. Rick starts acting weird. When she, Claire, Cal and Rick play tennis, he flips out and tries hitting him with balls and acting like an ass.

One night they show up at the house while she’s sitting. Rick tries kissing her and then plays it off like he doesn’t like her when she pushes him off. Claire goes upstairs to talk to Eli and suddenly Jenny hears a cry as Claire falls down the stairs. When she looks up, she sees Eli staring down at her with a smile on his face.

Eli starts acting weird after that, but more like a normal kid. He wants her to play with him all the time and every time she tries to leave, he grabs her, hugs her or begs her to stay. She doesn’t trust him at all, especially after she finds a dead tarantula in her bag.

Jenny sees Dr. Shindler again, but he seems like he’s taking Eli’s side, claiming the boy is probably just scared or nervous. After every appointment, she sees his nurse, who makes some odd comment about her pretty hair or clothes. While waiting for Cal one night, she sees the good doctor pop out of the shadows and decides that he must be the one calling her. They make plans to trap him and make him confess.

At her next appointment, she tells him that she wants to revisit the quarry. He doesn’t think it’s a great idea, but she persists, claiming that it will help her get over everything that happened. While waiting at the quarry, Miss Gurney pops up. She starts ranting and raving about Jenny stealing the doctor from her. Apparently she was his patient at one point, but now he ignores her for Jenny.

Cal pops out of the shadows and attacks, but she trips him and he falls in the quarry. Jenny sees hands coming over the top and thinks it’s Hagen, but of course it’s actually Cal. He attacks again, but Gurney grabs Jenny and they fall in the water. Gurney nearly drowns her before she escapes.

Schindler shows up with the cops and explains that he figured out the plan earlier that night when his session tapes went missing. Gurney kept stealing his tapes of Jenny and using that information to threaten her. The cops let them leave and Cal makes a joke about taking her to a horror movie.

*I completely do not get the whole change in Eli thing. All of the sudden he just starts acting like a normal kid and wants to be her best friend.

*Who else feels really bad for Chuck? He tries telling her how much he cares about her and she completely snaps. She basically tells him that she’s glad he helped her recover, but now he reminds her of what happened, so she doesn’t want him around. And then she proceeds to make out with a new guy.

*Jenny is kind of stupid because she doesn’t get that Rick has a crush on her. He acts like an asshat from the moment he meets Cal and she still doesn’t see it.

*I sincerely hope that most psychiatrists have better security measures in place…