WICKED STEPMOTHER
US, 90 1988, 86 minutes, Colour.
Betty Davis, Barbara Carrera, Colleen Camp, David Rasche, Lionel Stander, Evelyn Keyes, Tom Bosley.
Directed by Larry Cohen.
Wicked Stepmother is one of those films that has to be seen to be believed. It had considerable problems in production, especially with its star, Davis, Bette Davis, in her final role. The structure of the film had to be altered around the scenes that she shot. She disappears from the film in the latter half but there is a list of the cast at the end, with some scenes, which gives her the last image of the film.
The film was written and directed by Larry Cohen, writer and director of a number of thrillers like It’s Alive, God told me to as well as a film on J.Edgar Hoover.
The plot is rather preposterous. The film opens with an over-excited examination of a room where a family seems to have disappeared. However, they are found under the bed miniaturised in a shoe box. The officer in charge is played by Tom Bosley, suspended by the authorities because of his story. He decides to investigate by himself, the clues lead to witchcraft and he enrols in a course examining spells and other witches’ behaviour.
In the meantime, Colleen Camp and David Rasche return from their holiday only to find that their father, Lionel Stander, has married while they are away. And there is his new wife, an exceedingly gaunt Bette Davis, with a forceful red wig. She has taken over the house, persuaded her new husband to spend his time watching TV games programs and has rearranged the whole house, offending Colleen Camp mightily. David Rasche becomes more amenable.
The wife’s name is Miranda and she wants to go to court to see Rasche in action. Instead, Barbara Carrera arrives as Priscilla, exceedingly glamorous and seductive. She turns up at the house saying that Miranda has gone to San Francisco for a week. Furthering suspicions is the presence of a cat in the house with Colleen Camp allergic to cats.
The son, Michael, get into difficulties with bullying at school but Priscilla turns up and endows him with powers that knock out his opponents – and she makes him promise to like his new grandmother. In the meantime, she seduces Rasche who is shocked at what is happening. Colleen Camp tries all kinds of methods and then realises that Miranda and Priscilla are one person and a medium, played by veteran Evelyn Keyes, explains how the two people operate, one in real life, when the other is in the cat.
This leads to absolute mayhem in the house and its collapse, and the capture of the cat – only Miranda/Priscilla are still operating - and the film ends with Tom Bosley in his car being miniaturised!
A very strange way for Bette Davis to finish her film career.
