‘Babysitters’: Adult Empire Porn Movie of the Year 2008
Near the beginning of Babysitters, Tommy Gunn opens the door and gets his first proper look at babysitter Jesse Jane. She’s busty, blond, and bubbly, a vision of the classic, quintessential pornstar as if created in a fantasy lab. The view before him is crisp, clear, and dazzling. We can see the light glinting off her jewelry, the pattern in her sweater, and sheen of her pink lipstick. Audiences have come to take this level of detail for granted, but in 2008, high definition photography in porn was still in its relative infancy. Standard definition formats and traditional physical media were still common throughout the mid-2000s, and few projects were crafted with the possibilities of high definition in mind. Digital Playground conceived and shot the Babysitters project explicitly for the then-new HD market. By taking a timeless porn theme (the naughty babysitter) and combining it with future-proofed tech, they crafted a porn movie custom-made to stand the test of time.
Interestingly, though, Babysitters comes most vividly to life when watched through the viewpoint of a 2008 audience. For people accustomed to the limited resolution of standard definition, high-class HD content like Babysitters was a revelation. You can see every bead of sweat, every vein, every pulse of the cumshots. This kind of clarity is not unusual today, particularly with modern 4k tech, but it was a startling leap forward for consumers of the day.
If the technical credits are peerlessly modern, the theme is a porn staple, exploring through a series of overlapping vignettes. After Tommy greets Jesse (whom we’ll meet again later) in the opener, we cut to a separate babysitter scenario. Hapless Tony De Sergio is hopelessly distracted by the arrival of Nautica Thorn, whose short skirts and flirty manner seem purpose-built to tempt his naughty side. Gauzy striptease fantasies float through his head as he masturbates in the bathroom. These idle thoughts become reality when Nautica makes her move.
Elsewhere, Sasha Grey resents her boyfriend for pressuring her to go all the way. (In an amusing meta-reference to the movie’s actual director, she says he wants to “do things like they do in those Robby D. porn movies.”) She changes her tune, however, when babysitter boss Charles Dera cuts her a fee for an entirely different sort of service with a few of his friends. This male-dominated sequence is balanced by an ensuing all-girl group sex scene, which breaks out a slew of startling sex toys.
Later, sassy babysitter Teagan Presley catches Tyler Wood jerking off in the bathroom. In typical spunky fashion, she induces him to show exactly what’s he’s got, for her pleasure (and ultimately his). Shay Jordan invites her boyfriend Scott Nails over to the house of her clients while she’s babysitting their little one. When she and Scott are caught having sex on the couple’s bed, they “punish” Shay by inviting her to enjoy a threesome. This double-barreled sequence is Digital Playground at the height of their powers: top-tier contract stars in wildly over the top, entertaining performances. Shay’s cascading orgasms reach a pitch of such ferocity, she seems like an opera singer belting out a concluding aria.
Director Robby D. nicely brings the movie full circle by closing with the conclusion of the segment we witnessed at the opening. Babysitter Jesse reveals that Tommy’s wife, Nikki, told her that he’s fantasized about babysitters since he himself was an adolescent being babysat. That means it’s threesome time, of course, with three legendary stars in their absolute prime.
“Babysitters is a prime example of the type of film we pride ourselves on making,” said Digital Playground’s CEO in press materials when the movie was released. Indeed, it remains an eminently watchable, exciting incarnation of a classic porn scenario. It’s also interesting to witness the babysitter fetish before the family roleplay genre began to exert its influence. Modern flicks in the category tend to push matters into taboo and fauxcest areas, but Babysitters remains cheerfully in the mainstream. It followed Pirates as a legendary Adult Empire Porn Movie of the Year and would lay the groundwork for Nurses the next year.
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