The Stepfather

Released - 1987
Genre - Horror, Thriller
Director - Joseph Ruben
Starring - Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, Shelley Hack, Charles Lanyer, Stephen Shellen

This is stupidly fun stuff featuring Terry O'Quinn (who belatedly found fame as Locke in television hit Lost) as a psychotic stepfather in search of the perfect family. The problem is if anything threatens his vision of family bliss he loses the plot entirely and murders everyone before disguising himself and finding a new family, in fact this process forms the chilling opening of the film. Leaving a pile of bodies behind him he shacks up with Susan and her suspicious daughter Stephanie. It doesn't take long for the cracks to appear and worse the brother of his last victim is tracking him on a revenge trip. O'Quinn is really good in this role and there are a few creepy touches in the script, it has that made for television sheen to it but the subject matter is really dark and this is far more entertaining than I expected.

Related Links - Stepfather 2, The Stepfather 2009

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