Sleeper Hold!! Available from Splatter Theatre Press!

Professional wrestling can be dangerous. Broken bones, crushed dreams... murder. Twenty years ago, acclaimed writer, David Hayes, told author Jeff Dolniak about a project former professional wrestler Joe Broni wanted to do. This was his story of love, betrayal, and murder. It tells the sordid tale of how an independent wrestling promotion was menaced by a black-gloved killer, hellbent on destroying everyone... except for the popular Tanya the Tyrant. What connected her to the deranged fiend? Find out here, in Sleeper Hold! From the author: "Joe invited me out to his favorite greasy spoon for lunch. I paid. It was ok because it was Joe. We chatted for hours on how we would attack the project. It was surreal. I loved watching Joe as a kid. He lost every match but he still left an indelible mark on young Jeff. As time went on, I found out things about Joe. Things about the business that would forever change how I thought about the circus surrounding the squared circle. Horrors. A darkness that went beyond the sweaty athletes in spandex. Splatter Theatre Press has been brave enough to distribute this book." Featuring contributions by Paul Counelis , Kurt Belcher, Caleb Thusat, and Dalyn Viker. Buy your copy now! https://splattertheatre.com/products/sleeper-hold

A Binge too Far #63: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle duo (1992 – 2025)

Frame from The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)

This is the last installment of A Binge too far that tackles duos of film, as from next month I’ll be doing trilogies for the foreseeable future, so enjoy!

 

The Hand that Rocks... (1992)

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)

 

After pregnant woman Claire Bartel [Annabella Sciorra from Jungle Fever (1991)] is molested by her gynecologist [John de Lancie, later in Crank: High Voltage (2009)] her husband (Matt McCoy) rightfully decides to file a complaint that results in the story going public and in turn forces the perverted doctor to commit suicide. What’s more, when the deceased’s wife [Rebecca De Mornay, later in Identity (2003)] loses her baby, she is sworn revenge to the couple she accuses for the death of her husband.

 

The film grabs its title from a 1865 William Ross Wallace poem, but the screenplay by Amanda Silver [Jurassic World (2015)] was mostly inspired by a comic opera called The Pirates of Penzance (1879), although you couldn’t tell, as it is just a typical early-1990s thriller, even if a bit above average. Its mediocrity is mostly the result of a flat direction by Curtis Hanson [L.A. Confidential (1997)] as all he does is conventional coverage that is only occasionally salvaged by some good performances (including Julianne Moore). Despite all that it grossed a stunning $140 million (unheard for such a film, even during the subgenre’s heyday) on a modest $11.9 million budget, while it also became a massive renter on home video.

 

The Hand that Rocks... (2025)

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (2025)

 

An upper class couple [Mary Elizabeth Winstead from 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and Raul Castillo from Smile 2 (2024)] hire a nanny [the immensely beautiful, but also eerie and menacing Maika Monroe from the masterful It Follows (2014)] for their kids, who on first sight is a struggling and kind person, but maybe she is hiding something.

 

Although this more of a Cape Fear (1991) remake with gender and racial roles swapped (of course the male lead should be Mexican and the female leads current or former lesbians), rather than a remake of the same-titled film from 1992, it is still a very interesting psychological thriller that grabs your attention and has you on an edgy feeling throughout its running time. It is a nail-biting experience despite the by-the-numbers approach to directing by Michelle Garza Cervera [Huesera (2022)], but what surprised me was the cruel and realistic gore make-up effects during the (few and far between, to be honest) acts of violence on screen.

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