Although it has its share of silly moments, this suspense thriller is well enough made to score points most of the time.

When pregnant mum Clare (Annabella Sciorra) exposes her hospital doctor as a groper (and other women join in), he blows his brains out.

His own pregnant wife (Rebecca DeMornay) has a miscarriage.

Months later, DeMornay shows up at the Sciorra household offering her services as a nanny.

Quite why she doesn't make off with Sciorra's daughter and baby to begin with is something of a mystery, but presumably she wants the other woman to suffer as much as possible.

She breast-feeds the baby, alienating it from its mother. When the retarded handyman (Ernie Hudson) becomes suspicious, she has him tagged as a child-molester and dismissed.

Sister-in-law rumbles her too, but is quickly dispatched in a trap originally set for Sciorra.

Soon the scene is set for the kind of climactic night of terror Hollywood can stage-manage standing on its head.

DeMornay is icy as the vengeful widow, outshining Sciorra, who does as well as she can with the wife, and Matt McCoy, who has the thankless role of the husband.