Truly Dreadful Film

terrible... so disappointed.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Henry Morrison (Terry O'Quinn, TV's Lost, Silver Bullet) is introduced to us as he washes away the blood from killing his family, changes his appearance and leaves them - and his past life - behind. He throws all of the objects of his past life into the ocean and disappears for a year, resurfacing as a real estate agent named Jerry Blake.Now, he has a new wife, Susan Maine (Shelley Hack from TV's Charlie's Angels) and a rough relationship with his sixteen-year-old stepdaughter, Stephanie (Jill Schoelen from Popcorn). His biggest worry, though, is Jim Ogilvie, a wannabe detective and his former brother-in-law.As Henry/Jerry discovers an article from the newspaper about the death of his old family, he flips out at a neighborhood barbecue and flips out in his workshop. Unbeknownst to our hero, such as he is, his stepdaughter is listening to the entire episode.She goes to her therapist, Dr. Bondurant, who tries to get Henry/Jerry to talk about the past. It doesn't go too well, to say the least, and the doctor is murdered. That death ends up bonding stepfather and stepdaughter, believe it or not. That is - until he catches her making out with her boyfriend Paul.The stepfather deals with things the only way he knows how. He starts setting up another identity and gets ready to kill this family. This leads to him starting to confuse his many identities and smashing his new wife in the face with a telephone.Somehow, despite being shot twice and stabbed in the heart, Henry/Jerry survives and returns for not one, but to sequels. Spoiler warning: At least one of those will be up on this site later on today.Loosely based on the life of John List, this movie rises above simple slasher to cult classic based upon the acting skills of O'Quinn, who can go from tender and nice to pure mania in the very same line of dialogue. Can anyone make working on birdhouses seem so evil? I mean, all he's trying to do is find the perfect American family!

Occasionally a low-budget B-movie style film will break ranks and become a minor hit. This can be said of THE STEPFATHER, a film made in the late #80s craze for horror-at-home style thrillers which bombarded the box office, including amongst their rank fare such as FATAL ATTRACTION. Where THE STEPFATHER succeeds is in a script which prefers subtlety over in-your-face blood and guts shocks, and a story which doesn't spoon-feed the audience and remains tight and complex. Running at just over eighty minutes, every scene is designed to further the plot in some way making for a very satisfying experience, with plot development occurring all the time so it stays interesting.The film also benefits from a career-best turn from the widely unrecognised Terry O'Quinn, who played a number of stereotypical bad-guy roles back around this period but who never got the recognition he deserved perhaps in light of this movie. O'Quinn is magnificent as the friendly, mild-mannered family guy who also happens to be a psychotic killer on occasion and the scenes in which he loses his cool are riveting. It's amazing the abrupt turn O'Quinn makes from being a seemingly peace-loving father one moment to a knife-wielding psychopath the next, very cold and chilling. The supporting cast is also a good one, with the other actors and actresses giving wisely subdued performances in order to make room for O'Quinn. Particularly good are Jill Schoelen as the curious stepdaughter who discovers the truth and Stephen Shellen as the hunter out for revenge. Only Shelley Hack is underused (and barely seen) as the wife who doesn't realise anything.The film isn't gory but then it shouldn't be: another strength of THE STEPFATHER is the realism of it, and lots of splashing blood would have dissolved the atmosphere it builds up. I liked the strong characterisation and the psychology behind O'Quinn's warped persona which is scarily understandable and the tight script which leaves no room for plot holes. THE STEPFATHER is a breath of fresh air in a stale genre, an offbeat and unpredictable movie which grips from beginning to end and focuses on the human mind as a source of horror instead of a silly scaly monster, thus making the terrors "closer to home" as it were.

This movie is the classic old time 80's horror/crime which I have watched several times and still will do. I think it was just as disturbing psychologically as it was for the murder scenes and I have watched horrors since I was about the size of a munchkin. I was not surprised at all they did a remake but nowhere near as good as the original, the acting and direction is all done very well and I think the script belongs to Terry O'Quinn (The Stepfather) who plays an excellent part and love his expressions and scheming looks on his face. If you like this kinda film then maybe Douglas Jacksons' The Paperboy will be right up your street. I give it a praising 7 out of 10. After all " Father knows best" Enjoy!

A serial killer who is in love with the idea of a "perfect family" preys on the Maine family in 'The Stepfather'. The film starts with us seeing Terry Quinn's character changing his appearance and leaving his family home after brutally butchering them. We fast forward some time later to him now going by the name of Jerry Blake, he's got a wife named Susan and is the stepfather to our lead character Stephanie. Stephanie can't stand him and suspects there is more to him than meets the eye. She begins investigating into the murder he committed a year prior, and it isn't long before he catches on. Others begin questioning him as well, and his former brother-in-law from the family he killed is on the hunt for him. With the walls closing in, Jerry beings to crack... and begins to kill.'The Stepfather' is a brilliant late eighties thriller! I first came across it years back when TBS used to show a marathon of the Stepfather series on a regular basis. It's a basic story of a madman, but the performances by the actors involved takes it to another level. Terry Quinn is amazing as the psychotic Jerry Blake, just his mannerisms when he's having his meltdowns are spot on. Jill Schoelen, who became a late eighties scream queen, did a terrific job as the lead female character. And Shelley Hack put in a good performance as Stephanie's mom Susan, the woman he gave into the charms of Jerry. There are some death scenes, some pretty brutal, but the intensity comes from watching Jerry Blake crack under the pressure. Not knowing when he'll snap leaves viewers on the edge of their seats, and when he finally does snap towards the end of the film ... things get scary. Highly recommended.8/10