THE GUARDIAN

Originally mooted for Sam Raimi, this overripe horror about a nanny who sacrifices newborns to a giant tree found an epically ill-suited replacement in William “The Exorcist” Friedkin. Despite the silliness (a scene where it attacks a group of thugs is mockably bad), Friedkin plays the movie with a misguidedly straight face. Jenny Seagrove is solidly effective as the nanny, but Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell are fatally underpowered as the couple whose lives she invades.

Extras None. Steve O’Brien