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.
If you liked this
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.

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.

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.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

People
Cast
Bette DavisBaby Jane Hudson
Joan CrawfordBlanche Hudson
Victor BuonoEdwin Flagg
Wesley AddyMarty McDonald
Julie AllredYoung Baby Jane Hudson- Anne BartonCora Hudson
Marjorie BennettDehlia Flagg
Bert FreedBen Golden
Anna LeeMrs. Bates
Maidie NormanElvira Stitt
Dave WillockRay Hudson- William AldrichLunch Counter Assistant at Beach
Directing
- Tom Connors Jr.Assistant Director
- Robert AldrichDirector
- Robert GaryScript Supervisor
Writing
- Henry FarrellNovel
- Lukas HellerScreenplay
Production
- Kenneth HymanExecutive Producer
- Robert AldrichProducer
- Walter BlakeProducer's Assistant
- Jack R. BerneProduction Supervisor
Recommended by
Misery, The Act, Sunset Boulevard, Feud, Death Becomes Her, Mommie Dearest, Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte