In time for the theatrical release of the film's reworking, The Stepfather, the classic horror movie of extreme discomfort from 1987 has come to DVD. The reviews are coming in, and they pretty solidly suggest... you watch the original.
A highlight from a different age of tense horror, The Stepfather showcases solid direction and focuses the fear on unnerving you far more than simply having blood fly. Terry O'Quinn, of LOST, is superb, and quite frankly there's a bit of John Locke at work here.
Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn, ABC’s Lost) is a man obsessed with having the perfect “American Dream” life — including the house with the white picket fence in the suburbs, complete with an adoring wife and loving children. He believes he’s found it when he marries Susan Maine and becomes the stepfather to Susan’s 16-year-old daughter, Stephanie. But Stephanie gets an uneasy feeling when she is around Jerry with his “Father Knows Best” attitude — she can see that there is a darker side behind his cheerful exterior... Could she just be going through the typical teenager rebellion against her new stepfather, or could he be the same man who brutally murdered his family just one year earlier?
The DVD includes a commentary track with director Joseph Ruben. You may not be familiar with the name, but he directed Sleeping with the Enemy, Money Train, Return to Paradise, and The Forgotten, and the commentary is quite an interesting mix of insight and nostalgia.
Also included is the featurette The Stepfather Chronicles, an all-new retrospective with interviews with a variety of people involved with the film. Joseph Ruben, actress Jill Schoelen, author Brian Garfield, and others make appearances, and it's a nice treat to get some exposure to the original crew on a release such as this.
While this is a release that will clearly fly under the radar for a lot of people, don't let it escape your notice that this was selected as one of the year's top 10 movies by Vanity Fair, Village Voice, LA Weekly, and was pretty solidly received by critics in general.
Leave a comment below, and you are automatically entered to win your very own copy. U.S. and Canada only. Winner will be randomly selected Nov. 10th.
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About Marc Eastman
Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.
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