The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (2025) | Film Review

 

When Caitlyn (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) hires a new nanny, she finds that Polly (Maika Monroe) is not who she claims to be.

I was in two minds about my excitement for this film, and that's mostly due to my love for the first one. It's not the most popular film, but I saw the first film when I was young and since then it has always been an important staple thriller in my home, so as interested as I was to see a remake, I was also really apprehensive about it.

And I was right to be apprehensive because I have no idea why this was made.

I tried to watch it without comparing it to the original but considering it's using the same idea and the same name, comparison is inevitable.

The film never takes the time to develop any of the characters. Who are these people and why should we care about what might happen to them?

And that's made even worse because while we don't really know them, we also don't know what their motivations are. We know that Polly is the antagonist, but for a such a long time we have no idea why she's doing the things she's doing.

There's also no build-up to anything that happens. Polly doesn't get progressively worse in her behaviour, she'll just do something random, then do something else with no reasoning and no connection between the events. We have no idea what she's trying to do. In the original film we know the characters' motivations because they even meet, and that makes things so much more suspenseful.

And when this film tries to build tension, it does things way too late. We've spent over an hour not caring about this family, why is that suddenly going to change now?

The actors are great, and obviously trying their best, but the material just isn't giving them anything to work with. I have no idea why you'd bother to remake a good film just to put no effort into it.

So overall, the only thing I can really say is that I have no idea why this was made. If you've never seen the original but want to watch a great thriller, check it out. It definitely still holds up!

3/10