April 2nd, 2019
Written by: Donald E. Westlake
Starring: Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, Shelley Hack
Quote: "Wait a minute, who am I here?" "Jerry?" "That's right. Jerry Blake. Thanks, honey."
Trivia: Director Joseph Ruben originally wanted Jerry Blake to whistle the Barbra Streisand song "The Way We Were," but the rights to the song proved to be too expensive.
The slasher movie craze began in the seventies but really amped up in the early 1980s following the release of Friday the 13th. By the time the mid- to late-eighties hit, there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of slasher movies. So the difficulty for slasher movie directors became how to continue to make successful movies in a genre so over-saturated? Some movies chose to go with the given formula and just amp up the violence or add in comedic elements (which usually fails). Others, like The Stepfather, chose to go a different route. The Stepfather adds a surprising depth to its characters while playing on an old cliche, the abusive/crazy stepfather. While it has a great performance by Terry O'Quinn and has one of the greatest openings in a slasher movie, The Stepfather leaves a lot to be desired. The first five minutes and last fifteen minutes are exciting, but unfortunately that leaves nearly seventy minutes in the middle where the film is more or less stagnant.
As I said earlier, the introduction to the movie is great! The protagonist is seen in a bathroom where he is covered in blood. He calmly and meticulously washes the blood off himself, changes his clothes, shaves, cuts his hair, and puts in new contact lenses. After this he walks downstairs whistling while we, the viewer, see the horrific scene of his family's blood and bodies strewn throughout the living room. Super solid introduction! Flash forward a year and the guy is now going by the name Jerry Blake and is married to a widow who has teenage daughter that is reasonably enough suspicious of motives. Over the next hour or so Jerry and the daughter's relationship goes up and down and Jerry's sanity begins to fray giving hints he is about to snap. Meanwhile the brother of the wife that Jerry murdered earlier is trying to hunt him down. It all ends with a big confrontation between Jerry and the daughter and murdered wife's brother. I don't want to spoil anything, but you can probably guess how it all plays out.
In addition to the introduction, Terry O'Quinn does an incredible job as the dissociative stepfather psychopath. O'Quinn's ability to blend the wholesome American suburbanite and the calculating killer results in a truly frightening character. While the suburbs were largely created in the post-war years of the 1940's and 50's as people left the inner-cities, it was in the 1980's when suburbia really hit its peak (not that the vast landscapes of prefab communities throughout America has ceased to expand), at least in horror movies. The Stepfather builds on the already established theme that there is something dark and malicious hiding behind the manicured lawns, window blinds, and fake smiles of middle class suburbanites. Terry O'Quinn's character is a shining example of this. He is the charming local realtor with a dark secret.
O'Quinn's character is so fixated on wholesome American normalcy that when reality does not live up to the "Leave it to Beaver" fiction he tries to create, his world and psyche begin to crack. I felt it was these moments that were the most powerful moments in the film. Throughout the movie, the daughter suspects something is awry with her stepfather and we, the viewers, get small glimpses of the evil that resides within him. There are also some small hints at childhood trauma/abuse to help explain his behavior.
However, for many horror junkies, I feel, they will also think that this movie drags, especially for a slasher. There is the B-story about the brother of the stepfather's first wife that is poorly acted, unnecessary, and never really grabbed my attention. When his story does intersect with the A-story, the guy is killed almost immediately. But who cares? It was like his part was written as an afterthought and really didn't need to be in the movie.
Ultimately it was enjoyable enough for a first viewing, but doesn't really need a second watch.
...what's your thoughts?
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