“Wait, who am I here?”
Swift shot: The original was much better, but how many of today’s target audience even know that Terry O’Quinn, Lost’s John Locke played the original Stepfather in 1987, or that it was much more violent, interesting, and sexually complex? This new telling is more creepy than scary – unless you are a teenage girl. The best scene from the preview was cut from the film. This modern tale of caveat emptor was like watching The Stepfather Lite – less taste. . . more filling.
Centering around Michael Harding (Penn Badgley) a, supposedly, belligerent teenager who returns home from military school, “The Stepfather” is mired in the mundane. Director Nelson McCormick seemed to be looking for the shell effect, wherein evil is hidden under an amicable or benign crust – but he failed by letting David Harris/The Stepfather (Dylan Walsh) skulk around with a scowl throughout the movie . . . which apparently only our ‘hero’ noticed.
Yes, others started to raise questions about this mysterious new beau and fiancee in Susan’s (Sela Ward) life, and they are eventually dealt with by the maniacal stepfather. But, Susan seemed so blinded by her insecurities and loneliness that she never catches on that this dude is walking around like a serial killer without a puppy to set on fire. And when he finally goes Bat-Shit-Crazy on her, yea like I spoiled something there, the effect of abrupt awareness is effective, and to her character’s credit, when the shit hits the fan, she comes out swinging.
I have seen creepier stuff on the Lifetime network – seriously. While I wanted to completely trash this film, it does have some decent redeeming moments. Some of the kills are authentically vicious, where the use of the victim’s perspective should leave some lingering thoughts of what it would be like to die in such a fashion – psychologically interesting to be sure. That is where I found myself enjoying the film, but the rest of the movie was all build-up and then drop off, build up, drop off, and finally when things explode you are left wanting more resolution.
The film felt like it took forever to reach a “conclusion”, and I use that term loosely. It will probably cause you to run out and rent the original for a social comparative study on violence in pop culture from the eighties to the new millennium. But, other than that, wait for this to come out on regular cable; I doubt anything will be cut out for younger audiences.
