What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
1962 · Directed by Robert Aldrich
Original language: English
- horror
- thriller
The story
A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.
What it’s like
Black-and-white studio photography with hard contrast, the Hollywood house rendered as a cluttered gothic tomb: dim interior rooms full of yellowed sheet music, stuffed toys and cracked mirrors, lit by single lamps and the flat grey glare of afternoon windows. The camera stays mostly still and composes in deep, theatrical frames, often holding two faces in the same shot to let the tension sit between them. Music is a brittle, playful pop-vaudeville tune that keeps surfacing like a taunt, and the silences in between are thick. Sun-bleached beach footage and chintzy 1930s nostalgia give the film a faded, sour glamour. The pacing builds slowly through quiet humiliations before tipping into long stretches of dread and a grisly final act. Its emotional register is camp-tinged horror and bitter melodrama: an aging, unhinged performer and her bedridden sister locked in a loop of resentment, cruelty and pity. Violence is infrequent but sharp and disturbing, with some blood, a death, and a sustained sense of menace, though there is no sexual content. Best for viewers who enjoy classic Hollywood gothic, mean-spirited old-star rivalries, and a late-night watch that chills as much as it entertains.
More films like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?and we’ll explain which ones fit you.
