Cover Art

Credits

Director: Joseph Ruben Starring:Terry O'Quinn, Shelly Hack, Jill Schoelen Screenplay: Carolyn Lefcourt, Brian Garfield and Don Westlake Music:Patrick Moraz Tagline: Daddy's home and he's NOT very happy! Country: USA/Canada

The Stepfather opens with Jerry standing infront of the bathroom mirror, shaving off his beard and cutting his hair in an attempt to change his appearance, before walking out of the family home - right past the bloody corpses that were once his family. They disappointed him so it's time to move on. (He could have simply applied for a divorce I suppose, but that's not Jerry's style.) Next in his quest for the ideal family are Susan and her slightly wayward daughter, Stephanie. Susan is an adoring wife; happy to honour Jerry's wishes and, unfortunately, blind to his somewhat 'quirky' behaviour. Stephanie, on the other hand, is curious about her new Stepfather's past and decides to do a little investigating, her curiosity awakened after witnessing one of Jerry's mad rants in the cellar of their home. Meanwhile, Jerry is rapidly growing tired of his family, (they're simply not matching up to his 'standards'), and is already plotting a new life elsewhere, scouring neighbouring towns for his next not so happy home...

Not an especially good film, but an entertaining time-waster is probably the best way to sum up this movie. Apart from a couple of violent scenes, a few naughty words and a quick flash of nudity, The Stepfather would work pretty well as a made for TV horror/thriller. It's not especially suspenseful, or in the least bit scary, but the hour and a half in it's company is no hardship and it's certainly never boring. Terry O'Quinn is good fun in the lead role, switching between scowling, ranting madman and 'bless this house' speech spewing good-guy to decent effect, although Jack Nicholson he most definitely is not. I actually found this film to be quite funny at times - I'm not sure if that was the makers' intention but I got a few laughs out of it all the same, which only served to raise the entertainment value a notch. Behind-the-camera performances are competent enough, with the director serving up a few nice shots of the leafy suburbs and handling the small amount of, but surprisingly shocking, violence quite well. The music score is competent but uninspired. The script raises a few giggles, as already mentioned, and contains a fair few plot holes but it gets the job done … just. A blurb on the back of the case promises 'the best movie about the break-up of a family since Shoot the Moon. Sorry, no sale. Stephanie scowls at her Stepfather, grumbles to her shrink about how much she hates him and clamps her headphones on at night to drown out the sounds of Mom and Stepdad doing the nasty while Jerry, as you would expect, tries all the 'let's try to get along' speeches in the book, but that's about it; there's nothing too deep or thought provoking here to elevate this flick above 'popcorn movie' level.