Hulu is releasing a new version of the classic ’90s thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle this week on Wednesday, October 22. The original centered on a woman with a dark secret being hired as a family’s nanny, and the new version looks to follow that same pattern
However, fans should not expect a rote remake. In fact, the director, Michelle Garza Cervera, promises plenty of shocks are in store for fans of the original film.
Already, we know of quite a few differences that exist between the 1992 original and the 2025 version of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Here’s a look at the key distinctions ahead of the film’s October 22 debut on Hulu.
Prepare for a new location and time period.
Whereas the first version took place in Seattle, the new version takes place in Los Angeles in the present day.
The pacing will also be a bit different.
Cervera told People, “The studio gave me all the chances to recreate the whole thing and build a new story, new characters, with its own heart. I think that was the best way to honor the original, not try to redo it. We build a whole different kind of thriller. It’s actually more of a slow burn.”
The characters’ backstories will also be explored a bit more.
The director also teased that was the first film painted the unsuspecting mother Claire Bartel (Annabella Sciorra) in a fairly innocent light, the characters in the new movie will be fleshed out with their backstories a bit more than in the prior film — with both the scary nanny, Polly Murphy (Maika Monroe), and the mom, Caitlyn Morales (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), having skeletons in their closets, so to speak.
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The villain will be more identifiable.
Cervera also told ABC7 that the character of Maika Monroe, who takes over for the archetype played so famously by Rebecca De Mornay in the original, will have a more relatable history, but that doesn’t mean she’s a good guy. “I hope that maybe it’s a little bit more complicated for the audience to know which side they’re on, but man, oh man, she does some bad things.”
She also told People, “Instead of having just a victim and a perpetrator, they’re both in gray areas. I love the kind of antagonists that you can, on a point, empathize with. So there’s a very interesting game, like yin and yang that happens between them.”
The plot will differ as well.
Cervera told ScreenRant how the storylines in the new film will both compare and contrast with the original, saying, “We kept the plot, we kept some of the dynamics [of] having a 10-year-old girl, a baby, [and] the ages of the characters, but the whole thing, the city [and] the themes particularly are very different. The motivations for revenge and the way the conflict grows in the film… It’s particular to this new story and characters.”
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, October 22, Hulu