Following the success of her harrowing motherhood horror film, Huesera: The Bone Woman, director Michelle Garcia Cervera is back with something a little more high profile: the reboot of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. Starring Maika Monroe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the new thriller comes exclusively to Hulu on October 22, 2025.
In the new film, a suburban mom (Winstead) hires a new nanny (Monroe), but soon discovers that this nanny is harboring deadly secrets. While this film is based on the 1992 film of the same name starring Rebecca De Mornay, Cervera promises a new vision on the psychological thriller.
Watch the official trailer below:
In honor of the trailer release, we got the opportunity to speak with Cervera about her take on this cult classic, creating something brand new, and stretching her creative muscles.
Dread Central: What has it been like to go from making it such an incredible, indie film like Huesera: The Bone Woman into The Hand That Rocks The Cradle? What a crazy next step.
Michelle Garza Cervera: I know. It’s a crazy thing. It’s the feeling that life is giving you lemons, so you go and make lemonade. I feel so lucky how it worked out. I had several things going on and then I got approached by the studio with this idea. It stuck with me because I really do love this genre and I had a concept and I approached them with it and they loved it. And then it was just such an organic process. It kept on going on and going on to the point where it was ready to go shoot. So I was like, “OK, let’s do it.”
I was a little bit scared, leaving Mexico and coming to LA to do a film. The whole thing was a little bit intimidating. But once you start actually doing it and going into the craft of it, it’s pretty similar. And I really enjoyed it. I had the best team and the studio was very supportive. It’s very different, of course, from directing something like Huesera. And I also have other projects going on in that area in more personal.
But this was something that I really was craving to do and it was really fun. I learned so much and I constructed amazing relationships and friendships out of this. So I’m very proud. I feel like it’s going to be years to really understand everything that this meant for me. But I’m very happy and I never thought I was going to do a remake, to be very honest. It is not my thing.
But, [The Hand That Rocks The Cradle] really feels like, to me, our imagination. The studio was very supportive for us to construct a whole new thing.
DC: That’s so nice though. Going into a studio system, I know there’s so many more cooks in the kitchen, so it’s nice to hear you had more freedom to actually play and change things up and not just make another remake.
MGC: Exactly, exactly. I had enough distance and it’s just so different. But then there was an amazing writer [Micah Bloomberg] for The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and I was there since the first draft giving notes. So I knew, yeah, it is not like I got a spec script. I actually approached the studio with a concept and that’s how they hired a writer. So I was involved since the beginning.
And of course it’s very different, as you say, there are different cooks in the kitchen, that’s for sure. But I feel like we were very much aligned in most of the areas. So it’s just such a different creative process, but it’s still very fulfilling.
DC: So you said you came to LA to film. What was that transition like filming in LA and getting into what the systems are like here versus what you’re used to in Mexico City?
MGC: It was very intimidating because it’s another world, another language. I do feel like I’m more limited in many ways. But then when you’re literally going inside of the project and you’re understanding the necessities or the needs of the project, I feel like that’s where you stop being afraid. It’s not about the industry, it’s not about Hollywood because you’re literally thinking about characters and scenes.
And you know that David Lynch is like, my God, so I actually went to see his grave recently and I was asking him to protect me and stuff like that. [Laughs]
I feel like I have an idea of LA and I find it such an interesting city. It’s so complex, it’s so hard to understand it. And I feel like to me that’s very interesting and I’m very intrigued by it. So I love being here and having the chance to here, and I feel like we were able to bring some LA things to the film that I’m very proud of. But it’s been amazing and I just feel so blessed with the team that surrounded me. My editor is in the next room, and I think we’re going to be friends forever. It’s so nice to find your people.
And I really want to build maybe other films with most of the same team because I just created very strong relationships. I’m like, “Oh my God, I want to keep working with them and maybe make an original feature.” This career as a very long distance run to me, and this is one more stone that I’m very proud of. I am pretty sure these relationships are going to take me to somewhere crazy that I don’t even imagine at the moment.
DC: That’s so cool. What was your relationship with The Hand That Rocks The Cradle? Had you watched it at all? What was your relationship to it before you came onto the project?
MGC: Actually, when I was writing Huesera, I was studying and watching any film that had to do with domesticity and motherhood. So The Hand That Rocks The Cradle was one of the films that I actually watched with several of my team members when we were developing Huesera.
DC: Wait, that’s so cool!
MGC: I know. It’s kind of crazy. Very honestly, it’s not one of my favorite movies, but I really like it and I really respect it. And I think it’s a legendary film, but it was not a film that I ever expected to work on. But I feel like that also gave me freedom. I would’ve never remade one of my favorite movies. I don’t think so. Scared of that. I
DC: I was going to say, it’s kind of nice to be like, ‘I’m not as connected to it, but I respect it.’ It’s easier to make your own changes.
MGC: I feel like I had enough freedom and I actually asked to the team not to rewatch the original film. Once we start working, I was like, “Let’s not watch it.” We have to build a film that stands on its own, and that’s the best way to honor that one. Of course we hold, especially the writer, hold some of the main concepts and there’s some Easter eggs there, but really the themes are different. The characters are different. The story, the plot is different, too. We hold the main heart of a nanny coming in with different intentions, but that’s it. We really changed a lot, especially the themes, and I think that permeates the whole film.
DC: I know The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is has a sensationalist lifetime movie vibe. So I’m excited to see how you take it in 2025.
MGC: Yeah, I can’t wait for you to watch it. I mean, honestly, I feel very proud of it, and I really think it holds the kind of genre that I love, which is this psychological breakdown. You’re looking at a character that doesn’t know what to believe. And that to me is one of my favorite things ever. That’s the same thing I was kind of doing in Huesera.
To me, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle was kind of one more step of this kind of genre investigation of how I like to tell stories. So it definitely adds up to my particular way of directing. I didn’t feel out of my field. I feel like I proved myself and learned a lot of things that I didn’t know about myself and my way of directing before.
DC: Did you get to incorporate any punk music into this one?
MGC: Yes!
DC: Yay! OK, cool, I was hoping.
MGC: I’m so proud of the soundtrack. Sometimes I also pinch myself about it, starting with our composer Ariel Marx.
DC: Oh my God, she’s so cool.
MGC: She’s a genius. She’s so talented, so incredible. To see her work and collaborating with her was incredible. And then also our soundtrack is just like, oh my God, there’s some of my favorite musicians ever.
DC: Then obviously you work with an incredible cast, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe. They’re both genre icons. What was your experience working with them as actors?
MGC: Yeah. No, I was pinching myself. Sometimes I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m directing these two incredible actresses from films that I admire so much.” But then same thing, you start working with them and I do a long process before shooting about character biography and backstory. I work a lot with that, so I was able to build those things with them.
And then both of them are so different in the way of building a character, but so detailed and they’re just impressive. Both characters have this magnetic thing between them and they really manage to work it out in a way that is very impressive to see. On set we had very challenging scenes that only amazing actresses can pull off. And it was that kind of set that sometimes we were all in awe of what we just saw.
DC: There’s always such crazy moments where you’re like, ‘I don’t want to say anything’. I feel like there’s something in the air there, a magic.
MGC: I do think this movie is showing different areas of them that I haven’t seen before. And I thought it was very cool to see Maika in an antagonist character because she’s usually more the final girl. I was going to say exactly same thing with Mary, because the characters are very flawed and they’re more in gray areas in this film. So it was very cool to see Mary in those tones as well. So I’m extremely proud and I keep texting them like, “Oh my God, it was a dream to work with you.” I mean, I’m never going to stop saying it because it was really amazing in every sense, and I really hope I get to work with them again.
DC: Wow. What a cool journey you’ve been on with filmmaking. Like you said, it’s a crazy ride to go from Huesera, which is a beautiful film to The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. It’s so cool.
MGC: It’s a crazy ride and I really see it now that it’s finished. We just finished it literally very recently and now it’s going to fly away. It’s not in my control. Anything can happen. I’m telling you, I really forgot it was a remake at one point.
Right now I’m already focusing on what’s next. I’m already writing again and just trying to go back to my craft because I feel like that’s my place where I have to be.
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle comes exclusively to Hulu on October 22, 2025.
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