Making remakes is not a simple task. In fact, making remakes of movies is as difficult as making comic book movies, the film makers have to cater to such diverse tastes and mediums that they are tend to fall and fail. There have been many cases where the film maker has abused the reference material so much in their movie, that finally nothing can salvage the movie. Keeping this mind, at Stepfather (2009), which is a remake of the '80s cult classic 'The Stepfather' stands its own ground in the deluge of blockbuster movies this season.
Cast:
- Dylan Walsh as David Harris/Grady Edwards/Gregory Sykes/Chris Ames/The Stepfather
- Penn Badgley as Michael Harding
- Sela Ward as Susan Harding
- Amber Heard as Kelly Porter
- Sherry Stringfield as Leah
- Paige Turco as Jackie Kerns
- Jon Tenney as Jay Harding
- Nancy Linehan Charles as Mrs. Cutters
- Marcuis Harris as Detective Shay
- Braeden Lemasters as Sean Harding
- Deirdre Lovejoy as Detective Tylar
- Skyler Samuels as Beth Harding
- Blue Deckert as Captain Mackie
- Jason Wiles as Dylan Bennett
- Jessalyn Gilsig as Julie Kingst
- Tracey Costello as Mrs. Rivers
- Sean Moran as Gus
- Savannah Levin as Lisa Bennett
- Nicole Michele Sobchack as Mrs. Bennett
Plot:
Chris Ames is seen walking out of a seemingly quite neighborhood, even listening to the the Christmas Carol 'Silent Night', quite out of season, and drifting into the big bad world. He is then spotted a few weeks later, striking up a friendship with another young lady with children, and six months later, when they are about to be married, the family welcomes her eldest son, Michael. While everyone is taken by the affable and more than helpful Chris, it is Michael who is not comfortable with a new man in the family, and has his suspicions, which soon seem to break apart the entire family into pieces.
Things take a bad turn when the family soon realises that anyone trying to dig into the past of Chris Ames ends up either in a swimming fool, belly up or falling down the staircase in some 'unfortunate incident'. Chris soon falls back to his old behavior, where he has a seemingly violent interaction with the middle son of the family, which is promptly informed to the divorced father.
What happens further is something that sets the map of the typical horror/slasher movies, where the antagonist goes on a killing spree, to hide something that they have done years ago, or just to cover up the story that they have provided.
Review:
The Stepfather is a slickly made movie, with various nods to the original version. Typically in horror movies, the music as well as the camera work plays a big role in creating the spooky atmosphere, and the makers succeed in creating a exciting, spooky and typically horror atmosphere. What works most in the movie is the actual sequences that prove the brutality of the main character are kept for the very end, right from where he walks out of the house, with the camera panning through blooded warehouse objects, like a hammer, or even a screwdriver, etc.
The audience is already informed that the movie would be much more subtle than the original, with the first sequence, where Chris gets a bloodied face because of a nick while shaving, as compared to the blood splattered face that was introduced to the audience in the original movie.
One interesting aspect of the movie is that the makers have finally decided to give the women a bit more work than screaming and basically adding to the T&A in the movie. In the end, it is the mother who actually stabs Chris, and Michael's girlfriend, who does little more than donning the skimpiest bikini all through the movie actually takes up a woodcutter machine to ward off Chris during a crucial moment in the movie.
The movie is a bit cliched, where the audience can actually guess who dies and who does not, and gets ready for another slasher sequence some ten minutes before they actually happen. Of course, most slasher movies suffer form this, and what takes them ahead of the typical fare is the 'way the people are killed', which basically tests the creativity of the movie makers.
