The Stepfather
Release Date:
October 16, 2009
In 1987, in the days before Terry O’Quinn became an occasional paraplegic on Lost, he portrayed the male equivalent of a Black Widow. The film, The Stepfather, was a box office non-factor, earning less than $2.5 million domestically, but it became something of a cult classic on home video. The premise was that a husband killed his wife, moved to a new town and chose his next bride/victim. He also offered some creepy flirtation to his teen-aged step-daughter and the end result was the 1980s equivalent of the Gilmore Girls shot him in the back then stabbed him in the front. None of this is sexual euphemism. The titular groom was evil throughout a couple of marriages then he died. Think of it as Charlie Sheen’s life, only we haven’t gotten to the ending yet.
What is noteworthy about The Stepfather is that it was based on a series of real life events. A man named John List went nuts in 1971 and killed his mother, his wife and all three of his children. Then, he moved to a different area of the country, assumed a new identity and lived safely for a period of almost 18 years. Had it not been for a broadcast of America’s Most Wanted, he might have never been caught. Thanks to the power of John Walsh’s program, however, List’s freedom was taken away and he eventually died in prison in 2008. Over the period since the film’s release in 1987, List’s infamy has kept the premise in the minds of horror aficionados.
Fast forward to today and any horror title with name recognition gets re-made. That means the rights for The Stepfather were shipped off to the highest bidder and now we get to see that guy from Nip/Tuck - not the Doctor Doom one - try to do his best John Locke impression. The twist from the original is that there is no sexy teen daughter involved. Instead, Penn Badgley - Lonely Boy on Gossip Girl - has been written in as a military school student who doesn’t have Oedipal issues in the least, no sirree. In his defense, the mother he is protecting is Sela Ward, so you can understand why the kid would be sentimental about the breast feeding days. Whatever the circumstance, I’m sure that Dylan Walsh’s character will almost kill everyone involved before Badgley somehow manages to save the day. Serena and Blair will be so impressed. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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