In time for the theatrical release of the film’s reworking, The StepfatherThe Stepfather reviews, 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 LOSTLost reviews, is superb, and quite frankly there’s a bit of John Locke at work here.

Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn, ABCabc reviews’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 EnemySleeping With the Enemy reviews, Money Train, Return to ParadiseReturn to Paradise reviews, and The ForgottenThe Forgotten reviews, 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 FairVanity Fair reviews, Village Voice, LA Weekly, and was pretty solidly received by critics in general.

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Tagged as: DVD, Horror, Movies, Stepfather, Terry O'Quinn