The Stepfather (1987)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Joseph Ruben

Writers:

Carolyn Lefcourt (story) &
Brian Garfield (story) ...

Release Date:

23 January 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Who Am I Here?

Plot:

A family-values man named Jerry Blake marries widows and divorcées with children in search of the perfect family...

Plot Keywords:

Search | Daughter | Widow | Stepfather Stepdaughter Relationship | Sex

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Terry O'Quinn	...	Gerald 'Jerry' Blake
Jill Schoelen	...	Stephanie Maine
Shelley Hack	...	Susan Maine Blake
Charles Lanyer	...	Dr. Bondurant
Stephen Shellen	...	Jim Ogilvie
Stephen E. Miller	...	Al Brennan
Robyn Stevan	...	Karen
Jeff Schultz	...	Paul Baker
Lindsay Bourne	...	Art Teacher
Anna Hagan	...	Mrs. Leitner
Gillian Barber	...	Anne Barnes
Blu Mankuma	...	Lt. Jack Wall
Jackson Davies	...	Mr. Chesterton
Sandra Head	...	Receptionist
Gabrielle Rose	...	Dorothy Rinehard

Also Known As:

Stepfather I

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1988) (VHS) | Australia:M | Denmark:15 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (1988) | France:-12 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Trivia:

Jill Schoelen did almost all of her own stunts for the film's climax.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the film first opens, we see a paperboy toss the newspaper onto Jerry's lawn. It lands close to the perimeter of the lawn. But when Jerry emerges later and stops to pick up the newspaper, it is closer to the house.

Quotes:

Jerry Blake: Wait a minute, who am I here?
Sue: Jerry?
Jerry Blake: That's right. Jerry Blake. Thanks, honey.

Movie Connections:

References "Mister Ed" (1961)

Soundtrack:

Run Between the Raindrops

a not-so-good movie with a fantastic lead performance

In the Stepfather were told the story of a very particular kind of serial killer. It's the kind one might have found back in the town that Hitchcock set his Shadow of a Doubt, and his leading man as villain in Joseph Cotten as a man going around killing lonely old women is replaced here by Terry O'Quinn as a guy who simply takes up shop in families where the father's dead or gone and the wife needs a good fatherly presence to make the familial unit complete. So when Jerry Blake (formerly a Mr. Harrison or other, doesn't matter which really) married widowed Susan Blaine, her daughter (Jill Schoelen) isn't too happy. There's something just... off about him she can't quite pinpoint, which she also tells her therapist. But this doesn't stop her from acting out, and getting expelled from high school (in an almost pointless scene except to make her unsympathetic and set up a bland plot point), and it's something Jerry will just have to work a little harder at, to keep the family unit together.... or else!

There's nothing too special about the plot here, and only a few scenes (perhaps those meant to be really thrilling, or perhaps not) really stick out as being exciting or interesting. The rest are a series of either dull/blandly acted or just over-the-top moments where everyone aside from Terry O'Quinn does there best to act but, gosh-darnit, none of them can. Maybe this has less to do with the screenwriter, late novelist Donald E. Westlake, and more to do with the director Joseph Ruben, who would a few years later make The Good Son, another contrived 'I'm-just-a-normal-face' killer movie. I imagine if you turned it on in a scene with, say, the mother and the daughter talking, or even that intrepid young man who is out to avenge his sister and has the funny last name and fast car, you might not think to keep watching past five minutes.

Ruben's only real invention here to make things really watchable, and sometimes fantastic, is the casting of O'Quinn. For those who know him just from Lost as Locke (and you know who you are, such as myself), it's a treat and a half - he plays it just right in the calm 'normal' scenes, and then goes to town in taking this guy 'Jerry Blake' into another dimension of nuts. Just a simple facial expression after Jerry freaks out about his step-daughter's kiss with another boy is priceless. So if you must watch the movie watch it for him, or, perhaps, for the kind of guilty pleasure one has when watching, to give an equivalent idea of competent-crap of this year, Obsessed (not to be confused with the upcoming remake).