The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Year: 1992
Director: Curtis Hanson
Written by: Amanda Silver
Threat: Psychopath
Weapon of Choice: Shovel
IMDb page: 
The Hand That Rocks the CradleYear: 1992 Director: Curtis Hanson Written by: Amanda Silver Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Shovel IMDb page: |
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Other movies in this series:
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Rish's Reviews
Everybody's heard of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, right? I believe Rebecca
DeMornay got an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain for it. I had never seen it,
though.
When a well-to-do family hires a beautiful nanny (DeMornay) to come live with them,
they have no idea that she already has a history with the family, and is bent on cunning,
patient revenge. Directed by future L.A. Confidential helmer Curtis Hanson
and distributed by Hollywood Pictures (does that still exist?), it's hard for me to get my
head around the concept of this film--that a stay-at-home mother, whose other child is
in school, would need to hire a nanny to take care of her new baby while she pursues
her greenhousing hobby.
Not being a woman, I can't understand some of the subtleties of the film. I wish I had
one to talk to about it.
As with many of my reviews, this has been a long time in coming. I think I'll just throw a
bunch of random thoughts on the table and walk away from this one.
1. I like the idea of a family that listens to the HMS Pinafore recording around
the house. It's Science Fiction-level improbable, but cooool.
2. Hmmm. Annabella Sciorra's crippling asthma conveniently goes away . . . at will,
I guess.
3. They've got an excellent little girl actress in this one. I wonder if she grew up to
get neck tattoos and shoot up heroin.
4. I don't know if Ernie Hudson is a Former Celebrity, but he's very good in this.
5. Matt McCoy plays the poor ineffectual husband. "My legs are broken," he casually
observes.
6. You can't wait to see Julianne Moore's detestable character get hers.
The category tyranist and I always argued about in the early days of of the site was the
Villain is More Sympathetic Than Heroes. It was a Skull that was probably ill-conceived
by me to refer to those Eighties-type Slashers where the audience rooted for Freddy or
Chucky, and the nasty neighbours or randy teenagers had it all coming. Unfortunately,
75% of the movies we review here aren't Eighties Slashers, and the Skull is a very
subjective thing. For this film, I found myself very sympathetic to the villianous DeMornay's
motive and plight. She sows discord and mistrust in the family--in an only somewhat-contrived
manner. Like Gollum in Return of the King, though, there is a line that she crosses
that pushes her out of my favour.
Still, I wonder if there weren't audience members out there over the last dozen years who
didn't secretly hope DeMornay got away with her nefarious plot and found the vengeance
she deserved.
Posted: October 25, 2005
Total Skulls: 10
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie |  |
White Zombie |
| Future celebrity appears | |
Julianne Moore |
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | |
|
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | ||
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | ||
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | |
|
| Shower/bath scene | |
|
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | |
|
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness | ||
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | |
|
| Flashback sequence | ||
| Dark and stormy night | |
|
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | |
|
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | ||
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? |