Shirley Lyner (Katherine Waterston) is a typical high school teen—she worries about her grades and the SAT’s; she wonders if her best friend’s step-brother likes her, she baby-sits a few nights to make some extra cash. Shirley even has a little crush on one of her new clients; the dad, Mr. Beltran (John Leguizamo), makes her blush when he comes to pick her up.

But when Mr. Beltran kisses Shirley before taking her home, Shirley kisses back. And the extra big tip Mr. Beltran gives Shirley on top of her babysitting fee feels less like a guilty payoff and more like a little of surge of electricity. So when Mr. Beltran’s friend wants to know if Shirley has any friends who can also “baby-sit”, Shirley sees a way she can make a quick twenty percent. Before long, Shirley realizes, the more girls she has “babysitting”, the bigger her college fund.

Unfortunately for Shirley, the seven deadly sins are deadly for a reason. Soon greed, envy, jealousy have Shirley caught up not in love, not even in lust, but in a high stakes game of commerce where the buying and selling may look like fun, but the consequences can be fatal.

A cautionary tale about the risky and unintended consequences of living out one’s fantasies, The Babysitters stars John Leguizamo (Michael Beltran), Katherine Waterston (Shirley), and Cynthia Nixon (Gail Beltran) and is written and directed by David Ross.

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