(2025) The Hand That Rocks the Cradle - An Inferior Remake of the Well Received 1992 Thriller

Some time back, I noticed this film on Disney+ in the coming soon section. It was something that interest me so I was looking forward to it. However, I was not aware when the movie was finally released as it was not announced in the website I checked for new shows/movies on streaming service. Anyway last night as I was looking for new release movies, I noticed it was already available. Hence I decided to immediately watch it. OK, I'll just get started then.

Brief Story Line

Caitlyn Morales (Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Kate, Birds of Prey etc) worked as attorney and met with Polly Murphy (Maika Monroe - Independence Day: Resurgance, Longlegs etc), a young woman who was having trouble with her landlord on her lease. After their short encounter, Caitlyn delivered her baby and struggled with her older daughter Emma (Mileiah Vega) while her husband Miguel (Raúl Castillo - Army of the Dead, Class of '09 mini series etc) busy with his own business.

After heavy consideration, Caitlyn decided to employ Polly as the nanny. At first she looked fine and Caitlyn was delighted with her work. Slowly though things started to change and Caitlyn grew suspicious of Polly, but Miguel did not believe her as apparently Caitlyn had some huge stress problem in the past. 

So what was Polly's intention and how would Caitlyn deal with her? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

The title of this movie was very familiar to me as I remembered there was another film being promoted heavily when it was released in Indonesia back in 1992. However, I did not get the chance to see it then (not a major fan of going to the cinemas during those period as I would rather save my money for something else). Anyway I tried to look for that movie in the legal streaming service in Indonesia but could not find it, so I decided to go ahead and watch this remake to see if it's any good. Sadly though it failed to live to my expectation.

This film started off quite standard with the intro of the people involved. Things only gotten interesting when Polly managed to get herself invited to stay at Caitlyn house and began to increase her influence on the family. However, not sure why but I felt that Caitlyn suspicion was a bit too early, like it was not enough things done by Polly to warrant her huge mistrust. Plus there was a bit of odd sexual tension that made me wonder whether this was actually an erotic thriller. Anyway after something interesting that occurred after an hour or so, the tension was better felt. Unfortunately, the ending was too quick and not exactly satisfying especially after such a built up.

I read that critics were not impressed with the film too, even if several of them still had good opinion. Most of them felt the characterization of Caitlyn by Mary Elizabeth Winstead was pretty awesome with few also praised Maika Monroe. For me though, Mary's performance was more convincing especially during her chaotic moments (btw I did not recognize her at first cause she changed her hair color and appeared completely different from her previous looks). In addition to the ones I mentioned above, there was only one other important character, Caitlyn's neighbor Stewart (Martin Starr - Tulsa King TV series, Samaritan etc) while the rest were pretty minor.

After watching this movie, I tried to find more info on the original film. I read the complete story and felt that it was way better than this remake. It even got some award nominations and won few of them. Critics seemed to be of the same opinion as well and some even labeled this remake as flat and unnecessary. Too bad for the director Michelle Garza Cervera cause it would have been a nice follow up to her previous award winner feature film directorial debut, Huesera: The Bone Woman. The movie itself was written by Micah Bloomberg whose past experience including creator of Homecoming TV series and writer of Sanctuary.

Overall this was just a mediocre thriller film for me as the built up was not sufficient to my opinion, plus an ending that was too easy. Perhaps it had too short duration of 105 minutes (no mid or post end credit scene). The twist was not bad and was probably the best highlight to my opinion aside from Mary Elizabeth Winstead performance, but it was not enough to make me totally satisfied. So if you are interested in high quality thriller movie, then this likely would not make you happy. If your plan is to see if it's a better remake than the original, then I can assure you it's not (even if I had not seen it). But if you want to make comparison, then probably just wait till the 1992 film is available in Indonesia, or you can use other means if you really want to do it now. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars