Shuvrajit Das Biswas
Lifetime is known for bringing its viewers the edge-of-the-seat thrillers, and ‘Evil Nanny’ is a fine addition to its already sumptuous catalog of thrillers.
What is the Evil Nanny About?
For those who are not already aware of this Lifetime movie, ‘Evil Nanny’ follows the Tripp family, whose lives are suddenly upended by the arrival of a nightmarish nanny. When Fay Tripp has to go back to work, she and her husband appoint a live-in nanny, Jen, to look after the family in their absence. However, this routine appointment soon becomes a nightmare for the family. When Jen starts to neglect her duties, the Tripp family decides to fire her (with good reason), but thanks to her prolonged stay with the family, Jen acquires the status of a resident at the Tripp home, marking the beginning of the nightmare. With legal eviction, the only way to get Jen out of the house, the Tripp family gets caught in a long-drawn game, and before long, Jen assumes control of the household, forcing Fay’s hand to come up with a desperate plan to get rid of Jen.
Is Evil Nanny Based on a True Story?
As unbelievable as it might sound, ‘Evil Nanny’ is based on a true story, although there has been no official acknowledgment of it. So, what real-life story did the movie take as its inspiration?
Around 2014, several news reports emerged about a 64-year-old woman, Diane Stretton, who worked as a live-in nanny. While sexagenarians are usually considered to be sweet and harmless, Stretton allegedly terrorized the family that hired her before she was forced to leave the residence.
Hired by California couple Ralph and Marcella Bracamonte, Stretton was appointed to look after the couple’s family in their absence. Instead, the couple alleged that Stretton neglected her duties and refused to leave when they wanted to fire her. Reportedly, the situation spiraled out of control after that, and Stretton started threatening the family with legal action for minor things like no switching on the air conditioner. Other reports state that Stretton also called the cops on the family once because she deemed their television to be too loud. Further, CNN also reported that Stretton would often pressurize the Bracamontes to leave their own house for hours at a stretch so that she could enjoy her privacy. Thankfully, however, the Bracamontes eventually managed to get Stretton to leave, thus ending their nightmare.
Understandably, when the story broke in 2014, it left many parents in shock, and unsurprisingly, Stretton was given several monikers, such as “nightmare nanny,” “squatter nanny,” and “nanny from hell.”
Admittedly though, the events shown in ‘Evil Nanny’ are far more sinister than Stretton’s petty means of terrorization, and there’s no official acknowledgment in the movie that says that it is based on a true story. That being said, such stories about evil nannies are far and few between, and given the fact that ‘Evil Nanny’ was released in 2016, just a couple of years after the Stretton incident, it would make sense for the filmmakers to take inspiration from the real-life nightmare that the Bracamontes had to endure.
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