New undead adolescent series debuting

It’s very obvious that genre shows are very hot right now and very clear that the Canadian development community is taking note. Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems to be an obvious touchstone taking a look at the recently launched Canadian original series Lost Girl from Showcase and Space’s Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. Now Teletoon is jumping on the bandwagon with tonight’s airing My Babysitter’s a Vampire, which premieres Saturday night at 7 p.m.

The original production is the channel’s first commissioned live-action TV movie, and after it was made, a 13-episode series was also ordered, which will air sometime next year.

“The prime eyes for something like would be a 10-year-old boy or girl, younger than a teenager, for them to feel engaged in the older teenage phenomenon of Twilight, Vampire Diaries and the adult show, True Blood,” says Bruce McDonald, who directed the film and series. “So really, it’s so that little kids can feel part of what everyone else is into right now.”

The story centres on Ethan (Matthew Knight) and his best friend Benny (Atticus Mitchell), who are deemed to irresponsible to watch his younger sister, so his parents get a babysitter. Turns out the town is a vampire hive, and Sarah (Vanessa Morgan) gets bitten, but refuses to turn evil and fights off her bloodthirsty brethren. And not to ignore the elephant in the room, the movie pokes some fun at the Twilight craze, although, the fictional version is called Dusk and its fans are known as Duskers.

“I had never seen any of the films, but since this was making fun of it, I watched the first one,” says McDonald. “I thought it wasn’t bad, and could totally understand why girls would go crazy for it.”

Morgan, who plays the heroine of the series, is part of the demographic, which only made the shoot more fun.

“I am a Twilight fan. That’s why I even more excited about playing the part of a vampire because I was already something I was so into, since I was little,” says the 18-year-old, who also loves the Buffy comparison.

“I also loved that show,” she says. “But that’s the other thing I really like, you don’t really get a female character too often that does the fighting, the action and saving the day, which was another great thing about the role.”

Despite the subject matter, the creators work to keep it family-friendly, so there isn’t very much blood, but lots of special effects and fun fight scenes. Probably the most disgusting scene in the movie is Sarah munching down on a rat — which was actually just as gross in real life.

“It peed on my three times during that scene too, which was fantastic,” says Morgan.