Nanny is a tale of two movies… one a pretty good film about a Senegalese immigrant trying to make her way in the United States, the other a vague hand-waving supernatural film with unsatisfying and random frights. It needed to stick to a lane since the spook show bits are so undercooked.

The film is, indeed, about a Senegal-born woman who takes a job as a nanny to a rich couple. She’s good at caring for their 5 year old moppet, but she struggles getting paid on time or accurately. Meanwhile, she has random and cryptic visions, usually based on bits of Africa folklore like Anansi the spider/trickster god.

As a film about a nanny trying to make a life for herself, this isn’t a bad film. I’d have preferred it to be the entire film and to jettison the horror elements… except then maybe the film wouldn’t have gotten financed through that sweet, sweet Blumhouse cash. Nor, perhaps, would it have been watched.

Unfortunately, the horror elements really are just too random and such a small part of the film, you could easily forget them between scenes. A couple of the sequences are eerie and creepy but they all seem so ephemeral and inconsequential to even the main character who they are happening to. She might seem a little shaken by them at first, but they don’t really seem to make an impression on her otherwise.

Credit, I suppose, for bringing in spooks and haunts from African folklore. I only know a tiny bit about Anansi (thanks Neil Gaiman) so I only know the spider imagery. Other figments are probably/maybe related to legends of the old country… or maybe they are cooked up for this story alone.

The end of the film is wildly unsatisfying and abrupt. OK… I guess we’re smashing to credits. Glad we cleared this shit up. Moving on.

I wish I liked this movie more. I’d have rated it higher if it could have just dropped the horror show or done more with it. I liked the characters and the lead actress Anna Diop and wish the story had focused more on her non-supernatural life and struggles.

Score: 74