Film Review: THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE (2025): This Tension-Filled Remake Has Some Good Performances Even Though it’s a Bit Too Violent For its Own Good

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Review

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Michelle Garza Cervera, written by Micah Bloomberg and Amanda Silver and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Maika Monroe, Raul Castillo, Mileiah Vega, Lola Contreras, Martin Starr, Yvette Lu, Riki Lindhome, Shannon Cochran, Arabella Olivia Clark, Avery Tiiu Essex, Brian Carpenter, Elena Campbell-Martinez, Rafael Sigler, Roxy Rivera and DaJuan Johnson.

The new remake of the early 1990’s thriller, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, is competently made at a technical level. Director Michelle Garza Cervera stages all the dramatic scenes within the picture with delicate precision and keeps the tension building throughout. This film employs two excellent actresses in the leading roles. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe are truly well-cast in their roles.

Winstead plays the happily married Caitlin Morales who has a loving husband, Miguel (Raul Castillo), and two young daughters. To help care for her younger baby daughter, Caitlin enlists the help of a suspicious nanny, Polly Murphy (Monroe). Polly is given a good character reference by a lady named Rosanna (Shannon Cochran), but, as Caitlin will soon learn, there’s much more than meets the eye with Polly and, as fans of the original movie know, all hell will quickly break loose in a truly thrilling fashion.

Of course, the audience will realize just how wicked Polly is, but gradually. This film starts off with the hope that Polly could be a perfect nanny and just what the Morales family needs to feel complete as a unit. That theory is quickly debunked when Polly starts to feed the small baby sugar against Caitlin’s wishes and odd things keep happening for which Polly has no plausible explanation. Eventually, violence erupts as a character named Stewart (Martin Starr) gets his head beaten in with a bat by Polly who is certainly on a mission to take a spot in the Morales family. That’s about the point in the picture where it becomes too violent and where the movie steers off track.

While it’s hard to remember just how violent the original picture was, this new film feels over-the-top in a way that it should not. Polly comes across as so manipulative and deceitful that some of the plot developments here feel forced and, at times, implausible. Polly’s manipulative ways are easy to see through, yet Miguel doesn’t trust his own wife when she starts to see signs that Polly could be trouble. Things go too far in the movie such as in a scene where Caitlin accidentally slaps her older daughter so hard. At that point, the movie feels as if it’s heightening things for dramatic effect rather than playing out organically which would make the movie more believable.

Maika Monroe is still perfectly cast as the psycho nanny from hell. Monroe just doesn’t have a reasonable script on her side. This movie gives her character too many violent impulses all at once when a slower build-up to the violence would have made the performance stronger. She goes from wild to insanely psychotic in a matter of cinematic minutes and that is good for the speediness of the plot, but a bit hard for the viewer to swallow. If Monroe’s role was more carefully developed, it would have given the actress more to work with. She does keep the intensity of the character intact throughout the movie from beginning to end.

Winstead has some really heavy scenes and she handles them extraordinarily well. As Caitlin is in danger of not being believed about the truths she discovers regarding Polly, Winstead is careful to play her role in such a way that some of the plot’s secrets become hard to figure out. By keeping viewers in suspense throughout, the movie never becomes tiresome or boring despite its violence. Winstead is the driving force of the story line and the actress doesn’t disappoint in her role. Castillo is solid in his role, too, even though his character’s actions are ridiculous at times and only serve to progress the film’s wild story line. There’s no way Miguel would take Polly’s side as it happens here, but never mind.

Though it’s probably an unnecessary remake, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle works on the most basic levels as a suspense thriller. Hopefully, Hollywood doesn’t feel the need to remake other similarly themed “fill in the blank” from hell movies such as Fatal Attraction or Unlawful Entry if this new one becomes a hit. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle did need to tone down the level of its violence at times to recommend it. However, viewers who like these types of movies will be drawn to Winstead’s character and find her relatable during the course of the picture. It’s a close call, but this one just misses the mark by a thread.

Rating: 6.5/10

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