The Guardian is a 1990 American supernatural horror film co-written and directed by William Friedkin, and starring Jenny Seagrove as a mysterious nanny who is hired by new parents, played by Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell, to care for their infant son; the couple soon discover the nanny to be a hamadryad, whose previous clients' children went missing under her care. The film is based on the novel The Nanny, by Dan Greenburg.