A different take on a camp classic

★★★☆☆

This TV remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane had a tough act to follow, but it earns high marks by taking the story in a different direction rather than just covering familiar ground. Lynn Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave are both excellent as Jane and Blanche, bringing different energy to roles that could easily have become imitations of the iconic Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

What struck me most is how much more psychological this version feels. Rather than leaning into gothic horror and camp, it digs into the sisters’ relationship: the resentment, the codependency, the decades of buried grievances as something rooted in real psychological damage rather than spectacle. It’s a quieter, kind of unsettling, and it surprisingly works on that level.

The modern touches also help distinguish this from the original, giving the story room to breathe on its own terms. That said, it doesn’t reach the level of greatness the Davis/Crawford version achieved — that film’s mix of star-power rivalry (both on and off screen) and full-throttle camp is genuinely hard to top.

Still, if you’re someone who finds the original a little too theatrical and you’d prefer something more grounded and dramatically serious, this version is worth seeking out.