{"id":1708701,"date":"2022-10-24T08:04:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T12:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1708701"},"modified":"2022-10-24T10:18:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T14:18:48","slug":"the-original-stepfather-should-be-a-halloween-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-original-stepfather-should-be-a-halloween-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Original \u2018Stepfather\u2019 Should Be a Halloween Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-original-stepfather-should-be-a-halloween-tradition%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1708701&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Stepfather-review-Terry-O-Quinn-2.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><strong>Joseph Ruben\u2019s \u201cThe Stepfather\u201d (1987) showcases a towering performance by Terry O\u2019Quinn (Locke on \u201cLost\u201d) and a screenplay by crime novelist and \u201cThe Grifters\u201d screenwriter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donaldwestlake.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald E. Westlake.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although Ruben\u2019s film often makes an annual list of horror sleepers, it never gained the widespread awareness (for horror fans and just film buffs in general) that it deserves.<\/p>\n<p>Few horror films begin as well as this one, as a crane shot takes us to the second story of a lovely, two-story home in a nice suburb. Inside, we see a bearded man, played by O\u2019Quinn, covered in blood, showering and shaving until he looks like a new man.<\/p>\n<p>Although the hair is a little too neat (he even rounds it in the back), there is eventually an explanation for this. As the man walks down the stairs, we see he\u2019s leaving a slaughterhouse behind him.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a horrifying start. As he casually walks away from the scene of the crime, he whistles \u201cCamp Town Races\u201d and the camera pans up, indicating that this man is going to get away and start over.<\/p>\n<p>We cut to One Year Later, and the monster in the opening scene now goes by Jerry Blake.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FAST FACT: \u201cThe Stepfather\u201d barely made a ripple in the box office waters in 1987,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxofficemojo.com\/title\/tt0094035\/?ref_=bo_se_r_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> generating just $2.4 million stateside.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the time since the opening crime, Jerry has married a single mother, Susan (Shelly Hack) and now lives in a nice home with Susan and her daughter Stephanie (Jill Schoelen). Westlake\u2019s screenplay is smart enough not to waste time with Jerry and Susan\u2019s courtship but, instead, showing us this union is doomed.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s just a matter of time before he implodes again.<\/p>\n<p>The movie is 10 minutes old and has its premise set up. This is neat, tight storytelling.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been shot with flair by John Lindley, who would later be the Director of Photography on \u201cThe Serpent and the Rainbow\u201d (1988), \u201cField of Dreams\u201d (1989) and \u201cPleasantville\u201d (1998).<\/p>\n<p>Patrick Moraz\u2019s score is overly incessant and uses the synthesizer too heavily, one of those \u201980s scores that doesn\u2019t hold up. The awful score even blunts the impact of the final scene.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest problem is when the B plot kicks in: the brother of Jerry\u2019s murdered wife comes looking for him. It\u2019s awful, like an intrusion from a bad cop TV show. \u201cThe Stepfather\u201d never required the B-plot, as Jerry is so compelling (and the character so unstable), we don\u2019t need the plot device of him possibly being ID\u2019d by outside forces.<\/p>\n<p>He clearly is always just one more breakdown away from ruining his latest fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/terror-in-the-aisles-1984-review\/\"><strong>RELATED: \u2018TERROR IN THE AISLES\u2019 NAILED \u201980s HORROR<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That O\u2019Quinn later played non-villainous characters (like his warm take on Howard Hughes in Joe Johnston\u2019s \u201cThe Rocketeer\u201d) is a testament to his abilities as an actor. He is petrifying here.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a scene where he comforts his stepdaughter as she grieves, admitting that the death likely brought them closer together \u2013 the misery of others brings him satisfaction. O\u2019Quinn also has scenes where he stares right into the camera, which always make me freeze and hold my breath.<\/p>\n<p>Jerry\u2019s weakness is that he talks too much. The more he yaks about his rock-solid values and self-aggrandizing past, the more he can\u2019t keep his story\/stories straight. On the job, he declares \u201cWhat I sell is the American Dream,\u201d though he\u2019s also selling that off duty, too.<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie calls her Stepdad \u201cScary Jerry\u201d and says he \u201cwishes we were like families on TV, smiling and laughing.\u201d She\u2019s right. Schoelen\u2019s \u201980s teen facing Jerry\u2019s obey-or-else mindset is a black comedy portrait of a generation gap.<\/p>\n<p>A fascinating subplot shows us Jerry\u2019s plan to start over while still living in his current iteration. He takes a ferry to a new location, sets things up elsewhere in disguise, even flirts with a kind widow, then returns to being \u201cJerry Blake\u201d and is home before dinner.<\/p>\n<p>Even when the script gets pulpy (giving Jerry one liners like \u201cYou\u2019ve been a very bad girl\u201d is too Freddy Krueger-esque), O\u2019Quinn is still incredible.<\/p>\n<p>Jerry espouses all-American values over all else. We even see him watching \u201cMr. Ed\u201d and citing \u201cFather Knows Best\u2019 and \u201cRin Tin Tin.\u201d While showing a house, Jerry announces \u201cthe south side gets the most light,\u201d which makes me wonder if Westlake meant that line to land as social commentary (I\u2019m still unsure).<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the subject, Jerry refuses to acknowledge any perspective beyond his own and turns violent whenever his authority and carefully established domestic pageantry is questioned. When Jerry asks his stepdaughter a question, it\u2019s really a threat or an ultimatum in disguise.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who disagrees with Jerry that family is the most important thing is in dire trouble. Like Bob Balaban\u2019s \u201cParents\u201d (1989), here is a brilliant satire that uses the horror genre to illustrate the uneasy power game parents play with their children.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/house-review-1986-william-katt\/\"><strong>RELATED: \u2018HOUSE\u2019 TOOK MORE RISKS THAN MOST \u201980s HORROR FILMS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ruben\u2019s film presents a high-concept horror film that still carries social and dramatic weight: what if a \u201950s-era father become the dad of \u201980s-era teen. Ultimately, though Jerry is always fascinating and even sort of funny, we\u2019re on Stephanie\u2019s side. She doesn\u2019t want to hear her mom and stepfather from the bedroom next door at night and neither do we.<\/p>\n<p>The botched finale and score aside, \u201cThe Stepfather\u201d is solid, smarter than expected and is powered by O\u2019Quinn\u2019s Oscar-worthy performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Stepfather\u201d made Entertainment Weekly\u2019s 1999 list of \u201cThe Scariest Movies Ever Made.\u201d The sequels and the unfortunate, heavily neutered 2009 remake didn\u2019t come close.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of its release, \u201cThe Stepfather\u201d was viewed by many as a satire of President Reagan\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s Morning Again in America\u201d view of renewal. The political connection can\u2019t be accidental as there is, after all, a prominent picture of Reagan in the principal\u2019s office of Stephanie\u2019s school.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, Jerry isn\u2019t entirely unlike Chip, the psychopath Jim Carrey played in \u201cThe Cable Guy\u201d (1996), who was also raised and educated by too much television and whose real name we never know.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a creepy concept, that the \u201cnormalcy\u201d depicted in watered-down TV sitcoms is the same normal Jerry attempts to acquire and maintain, in an age where those values are seen as dated, corny and inappropriate.<\/p>\n<p>This aspect of \u201cThe Stepfather\u201d is troubling for how relevant it remains, perhaps more now than in 1987: in the 21st century, there are still people living in the past, who allow nostalgia, long held and unquestioned traditions and an unwillingness to change to create their version of reality. Maintain and submit, or else. Jerry Blake never went away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joseph Ruben\u2019s \u201cThe Stepfather\u201d (1987) showcases a towering performance by Terry O\u2019Quinn (Locke on \u201cLost\u201d) and a screenplay by crime novelist and \u201cThe Grifters\u201d screenwriter Donald E. Westlake. Although Ruben\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1708704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1708701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1708701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1708704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1708701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1708701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1708701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}