Midnight on Beacon Street

Verona’s entertaining debut pays homage to classic horror movies with a 1990s-set whodunit about a New Jersey babysitter’s night from hell. Seventeen-year-old Amy soothes her clinical anxiety by losing herself in the predictable horror films she’s rented since childhood, finding peace in the ways they bend terror into formula. When she’s hired to watch six-year-old Ben and 12-year-old Mira while their mom goes on a date, the gig couldn’t feel farther from a John Carpenter classic. But before long, a group of obnoxious teens descends on the house for a party, and Amy is plagued by a mysterious caller who hangs up as soon as she answers the phone. Meanwhile, docile Ben claims to see a ghost and a “Cat Man” stalking the house, which Amy ignores—until Ben finds himself standing over a dead girl in a pool of blood just after midnight. Horror fans will delight in Amy’s Scream-level genre literacy, and Verona maintains a brisk pace from start to finish. This giddy exercise in nostalgia pays off. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Jan.)

This review has been updated for clarity and to remove a spoiler.