The Stepfather (2009)
Nelson McCormick directs this remake of the 1987 film that goes by the same name. While prior to this Nelson mostly has worked in television, the other film credit to his name was directing another horror remake the year before "Prom Night." This recent remake's screenplay was written by J.S. Cardone who also worked with nelson on Prom Night though has written a few other films previously.
The story focuses around David Harris (Dylan Walsh from Nip/Tuck) and opens showing David finishing brutally murdering a family followed by skipping town. Now to start with if you are a loyal Nip/Tuck addict I'm about to insult you. Dylan Walsh can't act. Now I'm not someone who watches Nip/Tuck so maybe he actually can act and just choose not to for this film, which is quite possible. If you've seen the original 1987 version of The Stepfather it was also by no means groundbreaking but what absolutely made the movie was the performance of Terry O'Quinn in the first movie showing off his acting chops as someone who is genially insane and wants the perfect family. Dylan just not play a convincing David as he never comes near the absolute twisted evil that is required for the part.
Now I understand a lot of writers are willing to sacrifice scenes and story to get a PG-13 rating, most of these writers also understand that horror movies are mainly for adults. So at this point in my little ranging David meets Susan (Sela Ward) and woos his way into her heart. Here has found the latest (in apparently a long string) of candidates for the wife to fit in and be part of his perfect family. He quickly also has the daughter feel comfortable with him and when the son returns home he is, at first, almost comfortable with him – that feeling of comfort ends quickly. While he is able to show himself off as the best potential husband in the world there are not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 people who are suspect of David.
Amazingly 3 of these (the crazy cat lady across the street, the ex-husband who still cares, and the lesbian sister) who confront Susan about their concerns are all killed off. Of course I assume if you were a psycho killer attempting to make the perfect family than you would probably try to kill off anyone who was telling your seemingly perfect wife that she was in the wrong as well. The son is able to stay alive by just being comfortable enough with David to keep from pushing him too far.
By the end of the movie it comes down to her semi-estranged son who is a 'bad boy' to save the day as clearly no one else is left alive to. Now I could be wrong but if you had 3 different people straight out tell you that you were making a mistake wouldn't you at least put some effort into investigating it?
I want to be clear that I'm not being harsh on this movie since it's a remake. If done right I actually strongly enjoy a remake of a film. Take Dawn of the Dead for instance, one of George A. Romero's best works and the remake was
