{"id":2778,"date":"2016-01-09T15:54:42","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T20:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:32:37","slug":"the-hand-that-rocks-the-cradle-1992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2778","title":{"rendered":"The Hand That Rocks the Cradle-1992"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle-1992<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Curtis Hanson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Rebecca De Mornay, Annabella Sciorra, Matt McCoy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #360<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"569891\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed January 9, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

One may argue that the slick 1992 thriller The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is a direct rip-off of the 1987 blockbuster hit Fatal Attraction, which spawned countless imitators, and they may be accurate, but I adore this film.<\/p>\n

It contains great tension and is well-acted, but above all, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle features Rebecca De Mornay in a wonderful performance as one of the screen’s most memorable villains, Peyton Flanders.<\/p>\n

This is a film that will admittedly not win any awards for originality, but that I love all the same.<\/p>\n

Peyton Flanders is very pregnant when we meet her. Her husband is creepy Dr. Mott, an obstetrician who sexually molests Claire Bartel (Sciorra) in his office during an exam.<\/p>\n

Humiliated and upset, Claire, after being encouraged by her husband, Michael, files charges against Dr. Mott. He commits suicide, and Peyton loses her child.<\/p>\n

Filled with vengeance, she vows to destroy Claire.<\/p>\n

The plot may sound like a tawdry daytime soap plot device, but The Hand That Rocks The Cradle somehow works like a charm.<\/p>\n

Unlike Fatal Attraction, there is little rooting value between Peyton and Michael- we know she is a crazed lunatic- the fun is seeing how she gets hers.<\/p>\n

She manipulates him and insinuates herself into their home- she pretends to be a nanny and subsequently manipulates Michael and Claire’s daughter.<\/p>\n

Julianne Moore, in an early role in her storied film career, is believable as Claire’s best friend, who is the only one who sees Peyton for the monster she truly is.<\/p>\n

Sadly, her screen time is limited.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the other fine performances from the rest of the cast, this is De Mornay’s film- she is psychotic, then sweet, and plays both to the hilt.<\/p>\n

I suppose a film like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992) isn’t meant to be analyzed too much, since it tries to thrill, scare, and make the audience uneasy, but boy, is it sure fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle-1992 Director Curtis Hanson Starring Rebecca De Mornay, Annabella Sciorra, Matt McCoy Scott’s Review #360 Reviewed January 9, 2016 Grade: A One may argue that the slick 1992 thriller The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is a direct rip-off of the 1987 blockbuster hit Fatal Attraction, which spawned countless imitators, … Continue reading The Hand That Rocks the Cradle-1992<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[323,204],"tags":[1797,2863,1799,11512,1037,11511,1798,1729],"class_list":["post-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1992-movie-reviews","category-thrillers","tag-annabella-sciorra","tag-curtis-hanson","tag-ernie-hudson","tag-john-de-lancie","tag-julianne-moore","tag-madeline-zima","tag-matt-mccoy","tag-rebecca-de-mornay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23313,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions\/23313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}