The Stepfather (1987)
Directed by Joseph Ruben
Seemingly mild-mannered Henry Morrison has just murdered his entire family. After adopting a new identity and skipping town, he begins building a new relationship with a widow and her teenage daughter. However, he soon begins struggling to hide his true identity and maintain a grip on reality.
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What critics compared The Stepfather to
The film is a worthy heir to the horror traditions of “Halloween” auteur John Carpenter, whose work is referenced via a tense electronic score and the occasional shot of a jack-o’-lantern, and Joseph Ruben, whose 1987 “The Stepfather” provided the template for this story in which a figure who should be worthy of respect and trust insinuates his way into an all-American family under false pretenses and with deadly consequences.
But they also belong to Henry Fonda in 1968’s Once Upon A Time In The West, or Terry O’Quinn in 1987’s The Stepfather, to name two prominent antecedents.
Cleek, a creepy dad in the vein of Terry O'Quinn in The Stepfather (1987), drags the wild child to his cellar, where he chains her in a crucifixion stance, intent on "rehabilitating" her.
This switcheroo is a well-worn tactic in thrillers ranging from Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" to Joseph Ruben's "The Stepfather," and "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (rated R for violence, sex and language) isn't in their class.
Acclaimed for cult favorites such as "The Stepfather," Ruben makes a calculated bid for commercial acceptance with this psychosexual hair-raiser, a tale of a battered wife that flirts with, but never truly attains a female perspective.
And in the wake of movies like "Jagged Edge," "Fatal Attraction" and director Joseph Ruben's own (and much better) "The Stepfather," you also know that the only thing that can stop these relentless SOBs is a bullet.
Ruben's 1987 film " The Stepfather " received high praise in some quarters for its portrait of a soft-spoken, clear-eyed man who specialized in marrying women with children and then killing them and looting their assets.
Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy, The Forgotten ) directs competently though perhaps not as playfully as the material could have used, but O'Quinn gets in a few prime moments, such as the startling one in which he forgets which persona he's currently occupying.