The Stepfather (1987)

(In French, On Cable TV, October 2020) Despite my overall loathing of slasher films, even I have to admit that The Stepfather is a little bit more insidious than the usual psycho-with-a-knife movie. The already-uncomfortable idea of a stepfather coming into a family is heightened until the antagonist becomes a ticking bomb of deadly violence just waiting to kill our heroine and the rest of the family. This is, thematically, pretty strong stuff, and the film is never quite as good as when it plays with those ideas from a psychological horror standpoint. I’m really not so fond of the various deaths that punctuate the film on the way to the face-off between psycho-stepdad and plucky teenage heroine—those feel too much like gratuitous kills before the main conflict is addressed. Still, it does end with a good climax, and the film’s pernicious plot drivers never quite stop working. Terry O’Quinn is quite good in the unenviable role of the titular stepfather. The Stepfather is not recommended to any child of recomposed families with a sudden new stepfather in the picture.