Having little experience with suspense-thrillers, I am not in the position to compare this movie either favorably or otherwise with other films of this type. However, I can report that despite its predictability, it was nevertheless very exciting.

"The Hand Tha t Rocks the Cradle" begins with a pregnant women being molested by her obstetrician. After she reports him, several other women who were also molested make reports as well, and on hearing the charges, the doctor commits suicide. His pregnant wife loses her baby after learning of his suicide, and decides to take revenge on the women who first reported him. The movie continues six months later, when the wife of the deceased doctor applies to be the nanny for the woman against whom she is plotting.

The young mother takes her on as nanny, not aware of her vengeful intentions. The new nanny proceeds to pick apart the woman's household: she breast-feeds the woman's baby; she turns the woman's daughter against her mother; and she frames the husband as an adulterer.

The story turns into a horror version of "Fatal Attraction" with an exciting ending. The story has no real twists or turns, but nonetheless remains suspenseful the whole way, because of the irony of the audience knowing more about the story than the characters themselves. n