‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’ Movie Review: Monroe And Winstead Make Nanny-From-Hell Remake Watchable
Photo from Hulu
From Jeremy Kibler
1992’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remains one of the better blueprints on how to make an effective “…from Hell” thriller, a derivative and reductive but compulsively watchable staple from the ‘90s. For a movie that culminates with two women (Rebecca De Mornay and Annabella Sciorra) fighting tooth and fireplace poker for Perfect Family status, it was a huge hit. Narratively, there are very few surprises in Michelle Garza Cervera’s proficient (and more progressive) remake of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, but between a sleek visual style and the valiant efforts of Maika Monroe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, this is a smart, good-enough update.
Domestic help gets weaponized yet again, now in Los Angeles rather than Seattle, when a suburban couple hires a nanny with seemingly great credentials. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Caitlin, a regimented lawyer and mother who’s just had her second child with her husband (Raúl Castillo). It’s fate when she runs into a young woman named Polly (Maika Monroe), who has experience with childcare, and eventually welcomes her into their home and to stay in their guesthouse. From giving both daughters sugary cupcakes to buying fireworks for 10-year-old Emma (Mileiah Vega) to messing with Caitlin’s prescription drugs, Polly insidiously sets her manipulative plan in motion. Was Polly’s filthy, banged-up car not a red flag? Is she a monster for a reason? Well, yes, this isn’t just for funsies.
With any official remake, it’s important when the basic template doesn’t rock the boat too much, earning the same title, but the details do get shaken up for the times. With this Hulu-generation The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, director Michelle Garza Cervera (Huesera: The Bone Woman) comes up pretty successfully with an occasionally nervy script by Micah Bloomberg (Santuary) that almost subverts the formula, but it’s her two leading ladies who put in the work.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is her reliable self as Caitlin, warm but also quite prickly and overprotective; the sense of paranoia gets ratcheted up even more here for the woman whose nanny has taken over. Polly also has devilish intent, but Maika Monroe is able to make her a halfway-sympathetic villain, even more so than Rebecca De Mornay’s deliciously evil but still human performance as “Peyton Flanders.” Monroe, who is usually up against menacing figures, is cast against type, and she sells that switcheroo between approachable to mentally unwell. The men here are about as useless as they come in this subgenre, but Raúl Castillo and Martin Starr, as Caitlin’s doomed best friend and colleague, are definitely trying.
Besides the names being changed, the characters are not just corresponding types to the original’s Claire and Peyton. The script gives both Caitlin and Polly enough shades of gray, as both women aren’t fully who they claim to be. Given a vengeful motive that differs from Bad Nanny’s backstory in the 1992 version and remains ambiguous for a while, Polly isn’t purely a stock antagonist. Cinematographer Jo Willems also lets the movie pop with stylish compositions to offset the chilly color palette, and the music score by Ariel Marx is anxiety-inducing, echoey, and strange enough to be memorable.
Because this is a dramatic thriller, the friction between women descends into knock-down, drag-out violence with stab wounds and shattered glass. Instead of Chekhov’s White Picket Fence at the end of the original, we have Chekhov’s Stop Sign, and the payoff is intensely gnarly and as emotionally responsible as these showdowns could be. The first hand at this “Nanny from Hell” material still remains superior, but while it won’t rule the world, 2025’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is competent for the job.
Rating: 3/5
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is available to stream on Hulu.
