Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is a 1991 American coming-of-age black comedy film directed by Stephen Herek and starring Christina Applegate, Joanna Cassidy, Josh Charles and David Duchovny. The plot focuses on seventeen-year-old Sue Ellen Crandell, who assumes the role as head of the house for her siblings when the elderly babysitter her mother hired suddenly dies of a heart attack. Although only a moderate success theatrically, the film later achieved a cult following on VHS and cable television.