The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

Directed by

Curtis Hanson

Genre

horror film, psychological thriller, mystery film, thriller film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 50m

Rated

R

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 1,026 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A pregnant widow poses as a nanny after her husband dies by suicide. She targets a woman she blames for her loss and works to take over her family.

tensesuspensefulunsettlingslow-burnmanipulativeclaustrophobicdarkcalculatedparental-anxiety

What happens

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is a 1992 American psychological thriller film directed by Curtis Hanson, written by Amanda Silver, and starring Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, Matt McCoy, Ernie Hudson, Julianne Moore, and Madeline Zima. The plot follows the pregnant wife of a Seattle obstetrician, who dies by suicide after he is accused of sexual misconduct by some of his patients. The shock leads the wife to miscarry, after which she poses as a nanny for one of her late husband's accusers and slowly begins to infiltrate the family. The film's title is taken from the 1865 poem by William Ross Wallace, and it features several musical pieces featured from the 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle had a sneak preview for over 100 theaters on December 31, 1991, and was theatrically released in the United States on January 10, 1992, by Buena Vista Pictures through its Hollywood Pictures label. The film was a box office success, grossing approximately US$140 million worldwide against a budget of $11.9 million, subsequently becoming one of the year's most profitable films. In the home video market, it became the top rental in July 1992, and was the seventh-most rented film of 1992 in the United States. The film received numerous accolades, including Saturn Award nominations for Best Horror Film, Best Actress (De Mornay), and Best Supporting Actress (Moore). The Hand That Rocks the Cradle was remade as the Bollywood film Khal-Naaikaa (1993), and later adapted into another American film (2025). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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