The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992)
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (2025)
Look out, here they come.....nannies from hell, insidiously inserting themselves into upper class households, gaslighting the hapless mom and making the clueless husband think his wife's gone all the way cuckoo.......
In the 33 years that separate director Curtis Hanson's gripping thriller and director Michelle Garza Cervara's remake for Hulu, you can view a stark example of how much society and filmmaking have changed over three decades.
Hansen's film, a huge hit upon release, functions as a lean, mean thrill machine, with minimal subtext and plenty of "ooo" and "uh-oh" moments for an audience to gasp, cheer and even enjoy a tension releasing laugh in a few places.
And as expected for Hollywood, the film ushered in a flood of copycats ....the'_____from hell' genre. (Fill in the profession - Neighbor from Hell, Cop From Hell, Landlord From Hell, Doctor from Hell....etc, etc.....)
Amanda Silver's script for the 1992 film started off with a killer set-up. An expectant mom (Annabella Sciorra) is groped and molested by her Ob-Gyn (John De Lancie).Her going public about the incident brings out other similarly attacked victims, prompting the doc's indictment and suicide. This abrupt reversal of fortune leaves his pregnant trophy wife Peyton (Rebecca De Mornay) flat broke, homeless and suffering an emotional and physically agonizing miscarriage.
So guess who's now fully psycho and looking for payback on the woman responsible for leaving her life in ruins?
De Mornay, seizing the day here, becomes the beating dark heart of this movie, smearing on a thin veneer of normality..... under a new last name, she worms her way into the household to tear the happy family apart and steal their newborn. But whenever her Sweet Nanny mask slips off, the ferocious yet sly predator comes out to play.......and a cringing audience eats it up until the film finally delivers a satisfying comeuppance.
We're happy to tell you that all these years later, the film's still a hoot and a half to watch,with the added bonus of seeing Julienne Moore in a small but strong supporting roll. A fun time and still a 4 star (****) popcorn munchin' theme park ride.
And now we come to the similar in some basic ways but wildly different in others, remake.
The cast, at least, couldn't be more perfect and ready to rumble......Indie Scream Queen Maika Monroe ("It Follows", "Longlegs") as the suspicious nanny and pulp horror veteran Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("Death Proof", "The Thing" 2011 sequel) as the victimized mom.
While we appreciate that Micah Bloomberg's screenplay for the reboot goes out of its way to give both actresses way more tragic backstory for their characters, the film's higher aspirations of serious drama only dilute it as a thriller.
Unlike Curtis Hanson's full speed ahead pacing of the original film, the new 'Cradle' immerses itself in moody, gloomy unease. The film strains to link predator and prey together in equally shared horrific episodes of their past. The stakes are effectively deepened, but anyone expecting the wham-bam jolts of the first film will probably find this one a chore to sit through.
We cannot fault the performances, though. Monroe carefully avoids De Mornay's crowd pleasing theatrical villainy, preferring a more subtle passive-aggressive stance. Winstead, a seasoned player in chiller cinema, doesn't hold back on her escalating hysteria as Monroe slowly but surely takes her life and sanity apart. These two gifted talents do strike some sparks in their scenes together, but as we've already pointed out, overall the film never comes anywhere near the propulsive energy of its predecessor.
BQ's advice on these films (both available on Hulu).....all thriller addicts shouldn't miss the 1992 movie, a 4 star barn burner....(****).
Devoted fans of the two actresses of the 2025 movie will definitely want to check it out. But for us, it's at best, a nice try 2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2).
(Perhaps some enterprising film festival programmer will one day schedule a Nanny-thon, featuring the two 'Cradles', the two Nanny Mcfee movies, the two Mary Poppins movies, 'The Nanny Diaries', 'Uptown Girls', 'Mrs. Doubtfire', 'The Pacifier' with nanny Vin Diesel, and finishing up with murderous Bette Davis in the Hammer horror, 'The Nanny'....what a night that would be....bring popcorn and diapers (in case there's a shortage of bathrooms....)
No comments:
Post a Comment