The Stepfather
The film The Stepfather is the remake of Joseph Ruben’s 1987 horror-thriller classic film Lost. But the film has not been successful in creating anything new or does not make any up gradation to set itself apart from the original. The original film was cult thriller but the new one is very much predictable and is not spine chilling to say the least.
The best part is that the film has been publicized as a family movie but does not suit family audience all that perfectly. Despite the fact that The Stepfather deals with the subject of domestic and psychotic issues, it does not go quite well with the family audience.
The movie cannot be compared to the older version of the film. But after saying that one cannot come to the conclusion that the movie is completely bad or out of the world, may be we can say it is just about average. David Harris (Dylan Walsh) plays the title character and there are no prizes for guessing that David is the serial killer.
Obviously he does not reveal his actual self and the cops are on the hunt to grab this dangerous murderer. In process of escaping from one such family massacre David happens to meet his new target Susan Harding (Sela Ward) whom takes into his confidence and even her two kids are also taken for a ride. All works out well as per David’s plan who eventually starts living with the new family. And yes, he poses himself as a widower tog ain entry in Haridng’s house.
Susan’s older son Michael (Penn Badgley) comes home from the boarding school with his sexy girlfriend Kelly (Amber Heard) and David make desperate attempts to keep the family bonded.
Susan’s daughter Jackie (Paige Turco) and the rest of family members adore David until one day when he fails to reveal his past and identity; he produces cash when shops and his locked cabins all give rise to doubts. That was quite a simple ‘mystery’ for anyone to crack and this element is a huge let down for the film.
Dylan Walsh in The Stepfather
Most of the remakes are watched with great expectations and the remake needs to surpass the benchmark set by the original, which becomes a great challenge for any filmmaker. Director Nelson McCormick has presented a mediocre film and the characters don’t see the obvious; they conveniently neglect all the clues thrown at them, which is quite hard to digest.
David as a villain is supposedly the most wanted criminal in the country and one would usually expect such a killer to do his job clean but David makes quite a lot of stupid mistakes that could have blown the lid off much earlier but the story does not permit him to be a smart killer. Probably the director and the script need to be blamed for this blunder.
The cast of have displayed an average performance. The movie might cater to audience who do not wish to be frightened their guts off. The Stepfather has nothing new to offer; it is an old wine in the new bottle and nothing else.
| Film | The Stepfather |
|---|---|
| Cast | Dylan Walsh as David Harris Sela Ward as Susan Harding Penn Badgley as Michael Harding Amber Heard as Kelly Porter Sherry Stringfield as Leah Paige Turco as Jackie Kerns Jon Tenney as Jay Nancy Linehan Charles as Mrs. Cutter Marcuis Harris as Detective Shay Braeden Lemasters as Sean Harding |
| Director | Nelson McCormick |
| Writers | Carolyn Starin Brian Garfield and Donald E. Westlake |
| Producers | J.S. Cardone Jay Dykes Robert O. Green Greg Mooradian Mark Morgan Guy Oseary Meredith Zamsky |
| Runtime | 1 Hour 41 Minutes |
| Rating | 1.5/5 |
Posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 6:22 pm