While the Children Sleep (also known as The Sitter) is a 2007 made-for-television film released on the Lifetime Movie Network

Lifetime Movie Network

Lifetime Movie Network is a cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A&E Television Networks, LLC. A&E Television Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corporation and NBCUniversal. LMN offers women-oriented movies...

. The film is about a couple who hires a live-in nanny (Mariana Klaveno

Mariana Klaveno

Mariana Klaveno is an American actress best known for her role as Lorena Ball in HBO's True Blood. She became a credited regular in season 2 and 3, playing the part of the "maker" of the main character Bill Compton. She also starred in the feature film While the Children Sleep in the role of Abby...

) who inserts herself increasingly into the family routine. Then friends of the family begin to have mysterious accidents, as the nanny conspires to replace the mother through murder. The film's plot was compared by reviewers to the 1991 film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (film)

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is a 1992 American thriller about a vengeful nanny out to destroy a naïve woman and steal her family. The film was directed by Curtis Hanson, starring Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, and Matt McCoy...

 and 2001 film The Glass House

The Glass House (film)

The Glass House is a 2001 film directed by Daniel Sackheim and written by Wesley Strick.-Plot:Sixteen-year-old Ruby and eleven-year-old Rhett lose their parents in a car accident...

and others.

Plot

A couple, Carter and Meghan, decide that they should hire a live-in sitter so that they can both work and support their two children, Max and Casey. Abby Reed answers their advertisement and they move her in immediately. After some initial rough spots with the kids, the family warms to Abby. Abbey seems obsessed with Carter, and when she helps organize a company party for a big success — that is rained out — she's in tears and distraught over the failed party. Carter's friend Tate tries to take advantage of Abby in her upset state, and then Tate is discovered murdered in the trunk of his car. Neighbor Mel is then suspicious of Abby, and is soon murdered as well. Then, Meghan's friend Shawna, now suspecting Abby as well, threatens disclosure as the final moments of Abby's plan to replace Meghan unfold. As backstory, we find that Abby had been rescued from her abusive mother by family lawyer Carter many years before, where Abby's obsession originates with the family and desire to replace Meghan as his wife.