Film

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

This is Hollywood eating its own — two ageing stars, once icons, trapped together in a rotting mansion, one crippled, one unraveling, both furious at what fame did and didn't give them. It's part horror film, part backstage tragedy, and entirely a showcase for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's real-life loathing curdling into performance. Grand, grotesque, and genuinely unsettling — camp and cruelty in equal measure.

TMDb rating7.9

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Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte1964

Same director, same star, doubling down on Southern Gothic decay, with Olivia de Havilland stepping into the sane-sister role Crawford played here — bigger, madder, and just as gleefully cruel to its ageing leading lady.

But It's even longer and more melodramatic, with a plot twist so baroque it borders on parody.

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte poster

Sunset Boulevard1950

The template for every forgotten-star-rotting-in-a-mansion story — Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond is Baby Jane's tragic older cousin, all delusion, chandeliers, and dangerous self-mythology.

But It's a drama about faded glamour rather than a horror film, so don't expect the same jolts of dread.

Sunset Boulevard poster

What's the Matter with Helen?1971no page yet

Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds run a dance school while one of them slowly unravels; it's practically a spiritual sequel, made by people who clearly adored Baby Jane's blueprint.

But A less iconic pairing means less star-power friction, and the middle stretch sags noticeably.

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Feud2017

The behind-the-camera feud between Davis and Crawford was, by most accounts, every bit as toxic as their characters' — this show tells that true story.

Ryan Murphy's miniseries dramatizes the making of this very film, with Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon recreating a real-life rivalry as vicious as anything Davis and Crawford ever acted onscreen.

But It's gossip-as-prestige-TV, sympathetic to both women but unashamedly speculative about their private lives.

Feud poster
More like this (8)

Misery1990

Swap sisters for a superfan and you get the same claustrophobic dread of being trapped in a house with someone who controls your every need and won't let you leave.

But It's a slicker, more modern thriller with none of the camp or Hollywood-specific bitterness.

Misery poster

Gaslight1944

The gold standard for domestic psychological cruelty, dressed in Victorian finery instead of faded showbiz sequins — watch someone's grip on reality get dismantled brick by brick.

But It's quieter and more restrained; no wheelchairs, no screaming matches, just slow-burn menace.

Gaslight poster

Strait-Jacket1964no page yet

Joan Crawford, axe in hand, in a William Castle shocker that's pure trashy fun — see her play unhinged from the other side of the mirror.

But It's schlockier and less prestige than Baby Jane, more B-movie thrill ride than character study.

The Nanny1965no page yet

Bette Davis again, this time quietly sinister rather than screaming, in a tight British thriller about who's really the monster in the house.

But It's subtler and more restrained — if you wanted more Baby Jane-style theatrics, this will feel muted.

Rebecca1940

A dead woman's shadow rules a great house just as thoroughly as any living tormentor, in Hitchcock's masterclass of gothic dread and unreliable memory.

But There's no elderly-actress camp here, just cool English menace and a much younger heroine.

Rebecca poster

Death Becomes Her1992

Two ageing rivals claw at each other over beauty and relevance, played for shrieking comic horror instead of tragedy — the same bitterness, filtered through slapstick and special effects.

But It trades dread for laughs entirely; if you wanted the original's darkness, this is its gleeful, campy opposite.

Death Becomes Her poster

The Taking of Deborah Logan2014no page yet

Both films weaponise the horror of a woman's deteriorating body and the person trapped caring for her — one through Grand Guignol camp, the other through modern body horror.

A found-footage horror about an elderly woman's decline that curdles into something monstrous — it drags the terror of an ageing woman's body and mind betraying her into contemporary horror territory.

But Found-footage shakiness and jump scares are a world away from the theatrical, stagebound dread of Baby Jane.

Persona1966

Same engine — two women isolated together, one dominant, one vulnerable, boundaries between them collapsing — but played as austere arthouse rather than gothic horror.

Bergman strips the two-women-one-house-identities-dissolving idea down to its bare psychological bones — no camp, no scenery-chewing, just unbearable intimacy and quiet dread.

But It's slow, subtitled, and deliberately ambiguous — nearly the opposite of Baby Jane's theatrical excess.

Persona poster

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