THE STEPFATHER
US, 1987, 89 minutes, Colour.
Terry Quinn, Shelley Hack. Jill Schoelen.
Directed by Joseph Ruben.
The Stepfather received great acclaim as an excellent thriller. Made on a small budget with a no-name cast (with Shelley Hack in a guest role as Susan), the film, nevertheless, won acclaim from critics and the public.
The film was written by Donald Eastlake, noted for his crime thrillers such as Point Blank, The Hot Rock. It was directed by Joseph Ruben who made the antinuclear imaginative thriller, Dreamscape. Terry O'Quinn is excellent as the manic stepfather.
The film works on Hitchcock suspense, is not explicitly violent until the ending. There are acknowledgements to Hitchcock in brief glimpses eg, of The Birds, of Psycho. However, the basic screenplay is reminiscent of Hitchcock's version of Thornton Wilder's Shadow of a Doubt where a respectable looking citizen is really a murderer. In fact, the stepfather of this film has the ideal of the American family and breaks out and mass-murders when it does not live up to his ideals. In this way the screenplay is quite ironic and makes comment on the public face of America, the American Dream, television situation comedies and commercials - and the underlying violence in the American psyche.
An interesting and thoughtful thriller.
1. The acclaim of the film? Its cult status? How well does it work as a thriller?
2. The atmosphere of the American city, suburbia, clean suburbs and homes and families? The contrast with the underside of the violent American psyche? The special effects and stunts? Pace? The musical score and the
importance of mood?
3. The title and its focus on Jerry, the family? Jerry's place in the family? His past and its unravelling? The initial glimpse of the slaughter? His marrying, not wanting to break up the family, his mouthing of the ideals, his disappointment and rage, his execution of the families, his moving to new families?
4. The title and its reference to Stephanie, her viewpoint on her stepfather, the audience sharing her viewpoint and knowing more than Stephanie? The contrast with Susan's lack of knowledge and awareness of the truth?
5. The film as a piece of Americana: apple pie surface and puritanic underside? The joviality of Reagan's America of the '80s? The importance of religion, grace at meals? The wholesome television, Jerry watching Mr Ed? Celebrations, picnics, Thanksgiving feast days? The magazines and the building of the bird-house? Jerry looking for ideal locations for each home and family? The film working ironically on several levels?
6. The focus on Jerry, the bearded Manson look-alike, his changing his appearance, dapper dressing, whistling 'The Camptown Races' as his theme? Leaving the house unconcerned about the mass slaughter - the touch of horror and audience reaction? The boy delivering the paper at beginning and end of the film? One year later, his pleasant manner, the excellence of his disguise, his involvement in American Eagle? Real Estate? The range of clients, friendly, neighbours, in love with Susan? His relationship with Stephanie and her innate horror of him, being repelled, keeping her distance? His mouthing his ideals, smiling, buying the dog for Stephanie, the celebration with his clients? The irony of the information in the paper about reopening the case? Stephanie seeing his manic outburst in the basement? The bird-house and its building? The tools? The interaction with Stephanie, concern about his refusal to go to see the psychologist? His killing the psychologist, his shrewdness in unmasking him, the elaborate taking of the body and destroying it? His breaking the news to Stephanie, reunited with her? The possibility of a smooth household? Stephanie's date, kissing at the doorstep and his eruption? Letting his job go, smooth-talking Susan about his behaviour? His changing the photo for Stephanie's inquiry? His planning his next involvement? The violent killing of Ogilvie after the recognition? His being irritable with Susan, the pursuit of Stephanie, the violent confrontation, his death? The plausibility of his character? The author's comment about the fresh-faced and seeming reliable mass-murderers?
7. Stephanie: 16, her absent father, her relationship with her mother, anti-Jerry? The situations, the dog? Her girlfriend, the talk, suspicions, writing away for the photo? Her disappointment when she received it? Her erratic behaviour at school, expulsion, Jerry pleading for her? The various therapy sessions, her relationship with the therapist? The impact of his death? The reconciliation with Jerry? Her date, the kissing, the reaction? Jerry pursuing her throughout the house? Her final chopping up the bird-house?
8. Susan as the nice American wife, her love for Jerry, love for her daughter, trying to make the peace? The surprise at his absence from his job, Jerry's attack on her, her finally shooting him?
9. The sketch of the doctor, the therapy, help and understanding, decision to meet Jerry, his lack of preparation in making his case, slipping up on being shown through the house, his death?
10. The newspaper, Ogilvie and his concern, the new article? His desperate pursuit of Jerry, the discovery of the magazine, checking it out in the library, interviewing the various people, his arrival and his death (as Martin Balsam's in Psycho)?
11. The neighbours, pleasant, the irony of the couple breaking up? Teachers at school? The police and the impossibility of leads?
12. The American television style of the film, the American way of life, Mr Ed? The irony of the smooth surface and the malevolence and violence underneath? What was the audience left with in terms of drama, character, understanding the psychology of the killer, the American society which produces this killer?
