The Stepfather (Remake) -Review-

[Lilith]

CAST

Dylan Walsh as David Harris

Sela Ward as Susan Harding

Penn Badgley as Michael Harding

Amber Heard as Kelly Porter

PLOT

The Stepfather is about a delusional man with old fashion family values with absolutely no room for error. Should you disappoint him he may just re-paint your cute little house in your blood!




REVIEW

I just want to start off with saying that I really liked the original version of The Stepfather. So like with any remake I watch, especially if I liked the original I am going to watch with a critical eye. I don't expect a remake to be an exact copy of its original predecessor, because that would just kinda be pointless. But what I do expect in a remake is for it to capture the essence of the original and not go off to much of its originality or add to much or take from the main character in the remake.

For example of this, Rob Zombies remakes. So with that being said, I would say the film held true to the story, right down to how the original started out. Man kills current family and is changing his identity and ready to move on to the next poor victims family. Also, the fact that they kept this Stepfather in the realtor business was a plus too. But not for long, as he starts to get nervous when they insist that he fill out his paperwork for tax purposes etc.

Now for what I didn't like about this movie, the fact that they didn't include the
creepy little whistling jingle "camptown lady sing this song do da, do da".

I mean come on now, that was such a huge factor to the Stepfather in the original
its what helped to make him so eerily creepy and somewhat charming at the same time.

That's like taking the "ki,ki,ki.. ma, ma, ma" out of Friday the 13th. So for me in my opinion that was a big disappointment.

I also didn't think that this Stepfather was very convincing in his moments of rage and agitated phases. I just wasn't feeling the "oh shit" factor when he would get upset. I also didn't think he captured that villianistic charm or the evil smoothness of situations when they would go bad. Not like Terry O'Quinns version. I thought the prepping of the plans to kill this family and move on again was a bit bland also. Its like, well let me call the newspaper company and cancel my subscription because in doing that no one will be able to track me down. WTF? lol

He just popped in some colored contacts and shaved and thought, "no one will find me". Terry O'Quinn's version of the Stepfather was just much more believable and way more intense.

Finally, even though the movie lead you to believe he was changing the color of his hair, it didn't look any different to me. So things like that in the movie seemed really silly in my opinion. It wouldn't have if it were more believable and had some real conviction to back it. I also think there were just to many kids in this family to keep track of. Originally, the Stepfather tended to seek out single mothers with one child. Which worked better I think. But I don't want to give to much away in case no one has seen this film yet. It is worth a watch despite the lack of intensity and flaws of the main character.

If you like Lifetime suspense movies then this is the movie for you! Kinda has that feel to it I think.



RATING:
2/5


TRAILER:

[video=youtube;vGMpVLr-6HI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGMpVLr-6HI[/video]

[Zach]

At first when Ive not yet watched this movie I thought this will be a great movie like most any horror remake, of course it could have been better, but it's what it's. Despite all of the pretty bad reviews and critiques out there, I reluctantly went to see this movie last night. And I conclude that they did 1 very big thing right...made it so completely boring that you'll need to go out and purchase another ticket to see all the parts you missed when you were,.. "sleeping and snoring" All it took to knock me out was the fact that they tried to turn a great 80's scare flick into a pop culture teen movie..(seems like movie makers these days care about 1 thing, dollars and cents) and teens are the 1's bringing in the money to these rejects..All it took for me to make the very easy decision to catch up on some lost sleep was 2 pulls on a blunt a good movie would have kept me awake...do not waste your money or if your like me your time is even more important, thus another reason not to see it. But I admit that analyzing and pulling it apart is pointless and silly, cause judging by it's gross, people will see these movies regardless of the rating, or whether the original was considered better. Fact is, alot of people never saw the original, and unless they plan to buy the DVD, probably never will.

[mrblue]

I havnt see either one.

[Zach]

me..I havent seen the original one..

[FreddysFingers]

I wasn't a fan of the original and I didn't really like this one that much.

[Friday The 13th]

I watched it, and I actually liked it myself.
I mean the original was better imo tho.

[FreddysFingers]

I remember at out theater we labeled the print for this movie: NIP TUCK THE MOVIE just because Dylan Walsh was in it.

[Zach]

You know guys, this has to be the most predictable horror movie I've ever seen (and I use the word "horror" lightly). Every time there's a closeup of someone's face and the shot is slightly to one side, you can guarantee there'll be a killer behind them. When the old woman is pushed down the stairs, my whole theater laughed out loud. The fact that it wasn't enough for the kid to think his stepfather was a killer when he saw him in the basement through the vents checking his missing dad's cell phone, but when the kid himself suddenly is missing a picture he took of his stepfather on his cell phone, then it's time to freak out, because that is a sure indication a new family member is a killer.

[Friday The 13th]

I agree it was predictable, but It still was a good ol flickie do dab.

[Zach]

I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a comedy or a horror flick, yet like what I said the plot was predictable every step of the way. The acting was not good but not horrible too..., but without any big names in the cast that didn't surprise me. There were constant jump scenes which anybody listening should have expected by the overuse of suspense background music, and when it wasn't that, the movie was set to crappy emo music. Other than the Stepfather, you'd think one of the characters would have had the sense for what to do with a phone.

[FreddysFingers]

I think it goes along the lines of the remake of Prom Night. Predictable and cliche.