The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Remake Director Honors 1992 Movie With Changes
ComingSoon spoke with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle director Michelle Garza Cervera about giving the new remake a unique voice while staying true to the premise of the original 1992 movie. Cervera discussed differentiating the films, doing her first Hollywood production, and more. It begins streaming on Hulu on October 22.
“Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Caitlin Morales, an upscale suburban mom who brings a new nanny, Polly Murphy (Maika Monroe), into her home, only to discover she is not the person she claims to be,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: There are certainly similarities to the 1992 movie, but these are very different films. Can you speak to using that original film as a sort of plot base, but really doing your own thing? I really like the slow burn of this. I thought that really gave it a unique feel.
Michelle Garza Cervera: When I first got approached by the studio with this project, I was a little bit insecure. Because I’m not a big fan of remakes, and they’ve been looking for a pitch for so long. Then it’s sticking my head, you know, because I am definitely a huge fan of domestic thrillers. I feel like that’s kind of like one of my favorite spaces to work on. I got this idea about basically challenging it – like, keeping the main sandbox and the plot points.
But then, I thought, the best way to honor that movie was to build a whole new theme and concept for our own film. Then I really wanted to explore themes regarding generational trauma and the way violence perpetuates, you know? I really wanted to bring characters that were more in the gray areas. That sometimes the lines between good and evil or antagonist and lead and protagonist are kind of blurred, and those were the core changes.
From there, we started working. Then every time we were writing it, or like every person that we joined that team, we were working in such a specific way for this movie that it got to the point that it had its own identity.
I love the way you used the score to really build tension throughout the film, and you made even little looks from characters. Maika will just be doing a face, and it turns into this big dramatic moment. Could you speak to using the score to really make even small moments into big ones?
Michelle Garza Cervera: Thank you so much. Honestly, we had such a brilliant composer. She’s such genius. Her name is Ariel Marx. She works in such a personal way. She just had a baby, actually, when she started scoring the movie. She had a 1-year-old. So she uses so many of the instruments she has around her house. Like, literally breast pumps and some of the toys of her baby for the score, you know.
So I feel like we built from like, the actual objects that our character had around her. She’s just such a genius. I feel like she doesn’t go to classic, like, stereotypical places. She really builds for what that story needs. And […] she doesn’t overdo it, also. Like she allows for the characters to read and have their silences. But she really understood, and I feel like she really shared some of the fears that our characters have. So I feel like she worked from a very specific and emotional place.
This was also your first English-language film. Were there any surprises with the film production being different?
Honestly, at first, I was intimidated because, yes, apart from being a different country and a different language, of course, this is Hollywood, so the industry is on a completely different level. We have great crews and amazing filmmakers in Mexico, but here it is just like such a huge industry, you know?
I first was a little bit intimidated, but then at the end of the day, you know, the craft is the same. You know, storytelling is like a camera’s language. I was surrounded by such an incredible team that they had so many movies behind them, but then they were embracing my curiosity and my excitement of just doing my second feature.
So I was very blessed, you know, in that sense, and I feel like once I was focusing on my work, I knew exactly what to do because I had been doing it for a long time.
Thanks to Michelle Garza Cervera for taking the time to talk about The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remake.
Source: Comingsoon.net