Daddy's Gone off the deep end: The Stepfather Triple Bill Review: The Stepfather (1987), Stepfather 2 (1989) & The Stepfather III (1992)

The Stepfather (1987)
rating: ***
starring:  Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen and Shelley Hack

TV series' Lost's Terry O'Quinn stars as the titular serial killer who systematically murders every family he becomes a part with every time he deems them to be unfit to be his perfect American family.

Early on the movie, where we catch a glimpse of a fresh massacre as our psycho dad grooms himself, leaving to start anew his life with another potential family. A year alter, our killer took in the name Jerry Blake, and married a former widow, though his relationship with her daughter, Stephanie, is somewhat bitter, despite both straining to get along, much to Stephanie's uneasiness. In fact, with Blake's strict sense of White Fence idealism, Stephanie's restricted from doing anything he sees disappointing, such as dating boys.

Meanwhile, Jim Ogilvie, an amateur detective, who is also the brother of the previously murdered wife, tries to track down the murderer of his family and ended up roaming around the same neighborhood Blake is in. As Jim managed to publish the story of his family's murder in the papers, it unnerves Blake as he sees this in the paper. Taking notice of this, Stephanie becomes more and more suspicious of her new father and began to speculate that he might be the family killer. But with Blake one step ahead of everyone and managing to kill off every suspicious people that might be a threat to his ideals, can Stephanie save herself and her family from a killer already living in their home?

What worked well in The Stepfather is the realism of the situation; technically, any guy out there can just pretend to be the man of every woman's dream, before backlashing his true self at the family he's supposed to be a part of. The uncertainty and dread of this possibilities is well played here, giving a potentially terrifying villain all possible depth and intrigue for his character. I guess that's what you get for basing the movie's plot on the notorious serial killer John List, who was reported to had committed the same bizarre crime and covered his tracks by changing his identity, the same manner as the killer in the movie did.

However, what didn't work for me is that, while O'Quinn's character has his moment of creepiness and intimidating persona, his hammy lines when he's in "father mode" kinda thins, if not kills, his good parent disguise. I mean, seriously? This might be my modern mind thinking, but who can say "“You know something? Until this moment I never really knew what Thanksgiving was all about" without expecting anyone laughing or rolling their eyes at you? You can definitely tell this guy's up to no good with cheesy lines like that. (That or he's a nerd. A potentially dangerous nerd.) Ironically, this cheesy persona might as well be the trigger point for the character to turn psycho, as his inability to accept the reality of imperfection somewhat forces him to take matters in his own hands, and in his own personal ways.

That being said, The Stepfather is a unique kind of slasher film, wherein the build-up focuses more on the killer's attempt to live in a normal life, while still exhibiting hack-and-slash movie antics more around the last half our of the movie. (and the final chase scene.) Bodycount in this one is surprisingly low in terms of onscreen murder, but so long as the killer's ploy is thrilling and engaging enough to keep me watching, and too Jill Schoelen, who's one of my fave Scream Queens, is around, I'm okay with it.

Soap Opera-tendencies mixed with slasher film build, The Stepfather is a worthy cult classic that deserves it's following. While not the best slasher I'd seen, it is good enough for recognition.

Bodycount:
2 females and 1 male seen slaughtered with knife
1 male bludgeoned to death with wooden board
1 male stabbed to death with knife
total: 5

Stepfather 2: Make Room for Daddy (1989)

rating: **1/2

starring:  Terry O'Quinn, Meg Foster and Caroline Williams

I never really saw a necessity to franchise The Stepfather. Personally, that's just pushing it; last time we saw our Family Killer, he gets a knife stabbed into his chest, so following that movie up with something like him surviving that just kills the realism of all things and plain cashing in to the movie's partial success. So now, after surviving said fatal attack, Terry O'Quinn returns to play the killer stepdad once again, now institutionalized and building progress in rehabilitating himself, so claims the ward's psychiatrist. But after a one-on-one session with his psychiatrist stepdad proved him wrong (and dead) when he sticks a disguised pick into the doctor's neck and murders a guard nearby, escaping to once again wreck havoc and live his prefect dream life.

Now living under the identity of Dr. Gene F. Clifford, a family "psychologist" (oh the irony), he drove to Palm Meadows, LA and managed to own a house, which so happens to be right across a Real Estate agent and her son. Eventually, he tried to court her, and almost lived a normal life, that is until people started popping up between them, such as an ex-husband and a friend of the family who just so happens to spot a something odd about "Dr. Clifford". So what does he do? He kills them, of course! After all, who wouldn't kill for a perfect family? But can he hold this bloodlust long enough to have himself married?

Following the usual slasher franchising cliches, Stepfather 2 brought more (onscreen) murders and a little more splatter than the previous entry. Other than that, the film is pretty much a rerun of the first movie, minus any suspicious family members, giving more light to the Stepfather character and how he tries to keep his identity and his vision of a perfect family completely intact. So that basically runs around with him trying to be a good dad for most of the time, killing only twice (like the first film) in between a lengthy interval, making Quinn's character more sympathetic this time around. This is okay for my book, but despite this more character-driven take on the familiar story, it still ridden with some cheesy plot points, like that fact some of the characters here seems to have never heard "camp town races" before ("Where did you heard that song?" a concerned mother asks, I was waiting for someone to say "Where have you been, lady?" but it never came to be...), so I kinda put down some of my ratings for that one.

With little on the plotting department, the movie passes as a franchise entry with a fair cast (Meg Foster from Masters of the Universe (1987) stars as the lady apple in stepdad's eye and Caroline "Stretch" William from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 as a family friend who got too close into finding Stepdad's true identity.) and some good atmosphere. The gore effects, though, are a little dodgy, something that O'Quinn himself really disliked about the finish film, as you can tell them blood splashes are just desperate and cheap.

Nothing further to discuss, Stepfather 2 is really just that. Unnecessary sequel but overall still watchable. 

 Bodycount:
1 male stabbed on the neck with pick
1 male beaten to death with nightstick
1 male hands crushed on car trunk, killed
1 male stabbed to death with broken bottle
1 female strangled with scarf
total: 5

Stepfather III (1992) (AKA The Stepfather 3: Father's Day)

rating: **1/2

starring: Robert Wightman, Priscilla Barnes and Season Hubley

So some years had passed since, again, surviving getting a hammer claw to the chest, the stepfather escapes yet another institution he was held in and seeks a back-alley plastic surgeon to alter his appearance so no one would recognize him. The result? Goodbye O'Quinn and hello Robert Wightman! And as a reward for the surgeon? He cut his throat with a bonesaw.

Nine months had passed, the stepfather, now taking in the name "Keith Grant", found another small town to start his life anew and began dating Christine Davis, a divorced school principal after meeting her in an Easter Sunday dance. Things would had gone smoothly again, but with his new son Andy being in a wheelchair and had taken the least interest with him, and discovering his new wife infertile, Grant began to lose his noggin again and began to cheat on his wife in hopes of finding a better family, and plans to murder Christine's family to move on. But with Andy growing more and more suspicious of his new father, and many more unfortunates getting into Grant's nerves, it won't be long before we're back to familiar roots as the Stepfather lies and murders his way to perfect his ideal family.

So that's three movies with the same plot now, only here, you can really tell they're just sugar-coating it. Gone is the depth of the first two and in comes the slasher film stereotyping wherein our killer must utter a one-liner for every kill and that every murder has to be butcher shop bloody.

Frankly, I think gore is The Stepfather III's only selling point, as its redundant plot and hammy acting really fails to bring in the scares that the first movie (and a little bit of the second) had, so they had to give the fans something. Problem is, that something didn't work too well here; the opening murder itself might as well be a foreshadowing of this movie's cheesiness, ruined by a bizarre slow-motion camera effect that not only slows down the scene,but doubles the picture, too. In the meantime, the next following murders lacked much of the intense build-up, so it's gored red to make it up. I would normally blame the cheap budget for this one, but I don't think budget has anything to do with direction, it's more on creativity and restraint. And when I say restraint, I meant making the family as realistic as possible. (computer wiz kid in a wheel chair that miraculously walked in the end anyone?) It helps the horror parts.

But if looked at as a stand alone movie, The Stepfather III is a popcorn friendly movie that works at some level. It's funny enough not to be taken seriously and messy enough for a gore hungry feller to enjoy. Me included. Also, you can give this movie some credit for at least ditching any lean possibilities for another follow-up and ending a franchise in a messy way. Leading from a fun third act and into an ending that not even our killer dad can survive. I Guess they're aware that what they're doing is close to shit and just decided to end it there (Hallelujah...), so I'm very thankful for that.

Whether we really needed this sequel or not, The Stepfather III is a half-and-half good/bad movie with varying levels of entertainment. If cheese works for you, then this'll be a fine flick, but if you're the kind of folk who prefers realistic thrills than cartoon gore, then I guess you'll be disappointed in this one.

Bodycount:
1 male throat cut with bonesaw
1 male beaten and hacked to death with shovel
1 male repeatedly hacked with rake
1 male beaten to death against steering wheel, immolated in car explosion
1 male shredded through woodchipper
total: 5