Reboot! Remake! Recharge! Damn the defiant! The “should they/they shouldn’t” argument over modern remakes is futile. The excessive amount of older films being redone is unquestionably eroding originality and trading in adventurous studio projects for name recognition cash grabs. There may be the chosen few films that could benefit from a remake, but it is unclear why writer Micah Bloomberg and director Michelle Garza Cervera felt it necessary to give the world The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, their modernized update of the 1992 Curtis Hanson crowd-pleaser. Hanson’s film was a financial success, but the latest trendy phrase (excuse) is to say one is crafting “a modern spin” on older material. Cervera and Bloomberg find a clever way to flip the story, but a few spurts of creativity cannot carry this one to the finish line.
The 90s were a ripe decade for what used to be referred to as “potboilers.” These were thrillers that were cheap paycheck movies that played into whatever was popular at the time. Many good writers, directors, and performers did their time in these types of films. While the screenplays were almost always melodramatic and full of eye-rolling plot twists, the right filmmaker could create something memorable.
The late Curtis Hanson cut his teeth in this genre. 1987’s Hitchcock homage The Bedroom Window and 1990’s perversely cool Bad Influence, benefited from Hanson’s sharp filmmaking and led the director to 1992’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, his first big financial success. Most critics and a large part of movie audiences helped make the twisted tale of a psychotic nanny who terrorizes a family one of the pop culture phenomenons of its decade.
Hulu’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle stars two modern genre film actors Maika Monroe (It Follows, God is a Bullet, Significant Other, Longlegs) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Grindhouse, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) in an adjusted-for-modern-sensibilities retread of the 1992 classic.
Moving the setting of the original from Seattle to Los Angeles, Winstead stars as Caitlin Morales, a hard-working wife and mother who takes meds for her mood swings that come from holding onto a secretive past. Maika Monroe is Polly Murphy, a strange young woman who becomes the live-in nanny for Caitlin and her husband Miguel (Raúl Castillo, stuck with an underwritten role). The Morales’ have two children, grade-schooler Emma (Mileiah Vega) and their newborn daughter, Josie.
We are all familiar with the story. Caitlin and Polly become close, until the latter reveals a more sinister side. Wicked twists and turns ensue, thrills and chills begin! Pretty much.
Bloomberg’s screenplay makes something quite interesting out of Polly’s reasoning for terrorizing this family. In the original, Rebecca De Mornay was a wicked delight, playing the nanny as a mentally cracked psychopath who had lost her own child and was hunting for a new family. Annabella Sciorra was equally great as the wife/mother who becomes a victim to a terrifying threat to her motherhood and her life. The screenplay for that film was entertaining but basic in its good versus evil death match. Micah Bloomberg tweaks the material, making Caitlin and Polly deeper and more relatable.
Cervera’s update adds elements of horror to the straightforward thriller vibe while creating stronger characters for the two leads. Maika Monroe’s Polly is definitely evil, but there is more than meets the eye. The actress plays the character as less macabre and more emotionally broken. Polly is vicious and quite dangerous, but Monroe gives a controlled performance, free from evil eyebrow raising. De Mornay was excellent, but her take was full-on villain. For Polly, a family trauma has scarred her and her life has been a series of mistakes. Often jobless and homeless, a broken soul has turned her cold to the world. An unimaginable loss has driven her mind to the darkest of places.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is more than the cozy housewife whose idyllic life is upturned by a psycho. Caitlin is a career woman who is driven to overcome her own troubled past and make a good life for herself and her family. Annabella Sciorra gave an anchored performance in the original, allowing the audience to tether itself to a relatable reality before things went wild. Winstead is equally as good and the screenplay allows Caitlin a more nuanced creation with a deeper core.
Cervera uses a patient style as she builds strong tension in the first act. As the intricacies of the plot slowly unravel, Monroe’s eerie presence and her character’s deadly intentions add a bit of an uneasy horror atmosphere. Unfortunately, once the screenplay reveals its secrets and the audience has had their gasps, the film slides into another “Nobody would do that” by-the-books-thriller. Characters begin making dumb decisions dictated by the plot while some important moments between Winestead and her family are badly handled. Eventually, it all becomes so preposterous that any good will found in the setup is wasted due to a number of unbelievable character motivations and ridiculous attempts at unnecessary gore scenes.
Maika Monroe and Mary Elizabeth Winestead do fine work, as does young Mileiah Vega, but Raúl Castillo (a good actor) literally wanders around the film looking for something to do. His character is almost always just waking up, just climbing in bed, or fully asleep. Castillo occasionally gets the chance to chime in on something, but is immediately shuffled to the background of the scene as if to be punished for speaking.
Martin Starr gets a couple of good moments in a role reversal of the character played by Julianne Moore in Curtis Hanson’s original and Jo Willems’ camera frames many of the creepier moments effectively by making good use of reflections and distorted imagery.
Ariel Marx’s breathy, chanting, score annoys more than hits, while Micah Bloomberg’s strong start to the screenplay falters just as it gets interesting.
Thrillers are tough to get right. While the 90s seems to be the last decade to produce a good number of entertaining and effective nail-biters, the Hollywood of 2025 has all but lost the ability to care about that most important of ingredients, suspense. If a director cannot get viewers to the edge of their seats, a true thriller has not been achieved.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle begins on a solid foundation and finds promise in its intimacy and in the involving (and creative) backstory of its two main characters. As intensity and interest too-quickly give way to a frantic rush to get to “the good stuff”, Michelle Garza Cervera loses her grip on creating something special. Ultimately, the film becomes nothing more than a typical cash grab.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Written by Micah Bloomberg (based on characters created by Amanda Silver)
Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera
Starring Maika Monroe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Raúl Castillo, Martin Starr, Mileiah Vega, Riki Lindhome
R, 102 Minutes, 20th Century Studios, Hulu
