Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Michelle Garza Cervera
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Maika Monroe, Raúl Castillo, Martin Starr, Riki Lindhome
The late '80s and early '90s saw a spate of "yuppie thrillers" in which attractive middle class couples had their comfy lives threatened by malevolent outsiders. With his 1992 thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Curtis Hanson (who also directed one of the best yuppie thrillers of the era in Bad Influence) took the old evil nanny trope and dropped it into this shiny new setting. It was an entertaining potboiler, and somewhat ahead of its time with its "cancel culture" theme. It also stood out as a revenge thriller where it's the antagonist, rather than the protagonist, who is the one seeking vengeance.
In this remake, the villainous nanny is again out for revenge, but unlike the original, her motivation remains a secret until a final act twist. Maika Monroe takes the Rebecca De Mornay role of the devious blonde who seeks to disrupt the life of a middle class mother. She plays Polly, who targets lawyer Caitlin (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) by charming her way into her home, where Caitlin employs her as a live-in nanny.
If you've seen the original, or any of its many TV movie imitators, you'll be familiar with how this all plays out. Polly launches a campaign of slowly turning Caitlin's family against her, beginning with her young daughter Emma (Mileiah Vega) before moving on to her husband Miguel (Raúl Castillo), and eventually gaslighting Caitlin before targeting her newborn child.
There are some fresh elements that make this a departure from the norm however. Polly is a lesbian, and so the sexual tension is with Caitlin, who confesses to a bisexual past before her marriage, rather than her husband. At least in theory, as this subplot never really blossoms beyond Caitlin spying on Polly having sex with her girlfriend. As you might expect of a studio product in 2025, this is not a sexy movie.
The most interesting new addition is how Polly slowly picks apart Caitlin's liberal veneer. A lawyer who does pro bono work for the needy, Caitlin presents herself as a progressive sort, but the cracks begin to appear in this shell as Polly learns which buttons to push. But this is neutered somewhat by Polly being white. Had the nanny been Latina it would have not only been more realistic but would have added an extra layer of socio-political depth, allowing the character to prey on Caitlin's white liberal guilt. With Caitlin having a Latino husband, it might also have played into Caitlin's paranoia about losing her family. Given the movie is directed by a Mexican in Michelle Garza Cervera, one wonders if this might have been the case in an earlier draft, though in this finished version there's a very specific reason why Polly can only be white.
Cervera made an impressive debut with her feminist horror movie Huesera: The Bone Woman, which she also wrote, but she struggles to do anything interesting with this gun for hire job that sees her directing an uninspiring script by Micah Bloomberg. Visually it's indistinguishable from any evil nanny movie you might stumble across on the Lifetime network. Cervera's Huesera was a great looking movie, so it's ironic that her first movie with a north of the border budget looks like a Mexican telenovela. The script doles out information in the most predictable and tedious manner, and there are almost no suspense sequences.
Perhaps what's most disappointing is how little Monroe makes of the role. Having long been cast as the final girl, it was tempting to see what the usually watchable Monroe might make of a villain, but she plays the role in one-note fashion when it's crying out for campy histrionics to bring the movie to life. Winstead is more convincing as her victim, nailing the sort of irritating liberal white woman who obsesses over palm oil percentages while her husband just wants some beefy tacos. But both these women are so unlikable that it's hard to care who winds out in the end.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle was initially set for a cinema release but has ended up being quietly ushered onto Disney+. The small screen is very much where it belongs. The good news for anyone who now decides to watch it is that you won't have to hire a nanny for the evening.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is on Disney+ from October 22nd.
