Orphan and The Uninvited: The Hand That Rocks the Cradle lives on

When I was little, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle was one of my favorite movies. It had everything…suspense, action, even Gilbert & Sullivan. And apparently I’m not the only one who was influenced by this Rebecca DeMornay classic.

This year saw the release of two horror movies that echo themes from The Hand that Rocks the Cradle in very different ways. First there was The Uninvited.

This movie seems to pose the question, what would happen if the evil nanny (or nurse in this case) got away with everything? After a troubled teen gets home from the crazy house where she spent years after a mysterious explosion killed her sickly mother, she finds that her mom’s nursemaid has now become her new mom. Creepiness ensues, and a lot of sneaking around and looking for clues to the stepmother’s past, as shown below.

Then there’s Orphan, which is superficially reminiscent of The Bad Seed and The Good Son, but has a darker streak that is all The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

Esther, the titular orphan who seems to be pure evil from the beginning but somehow manages to fool everyone for a long time, sets about tearing apart the family by turning them against each other, much in the same way Peyton Flanders’ murderous nanny does in Cradle. A lot of the action also seems eerily similar, in both mood and pacing, from the violent scenes to the mother-trying-to-defend-her-family scenes.

Now might be the perfect time for a Cradle remake! Just sayin’.