THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS

US, 1991, 102 minutes, Colour.
Brandon Quintin Adams, Everett Mc Gill, Wendy Robie, Ving Rhames.
Directed by Wes Craven.

The People Under the Stairs was written and directed by horror expert, Wes Craven. His credits include The Hills have Eyes, Serpent and the Rainbow, Nightmare on Elm Street, Shocker. The screenplay is based, allegedly, on true events.

While the horror is there in the crazy couple, their adopted daughter and their child abuse attitudes towards her, their imprisoning visitors to the house and trapping them under the stairs, the whole lot is meant to be an analogy of contemporary American society. The seemingly respectable couple are actually evil, inbred, greedy, lacking all sensitivity and morals. The people they imprison include people from the ghetto, the loners from this kind of society. The mansion becomes an allegory of this kind of society.

The setting, is Los Angeles, an old mansion near the black ghetto. The hero is a 13 year old boy who is able to unmask the villains, rescue the young girl - and open up the possibilities for some kind of social and moral reform. There are scenes of horror which will delight enthusiasts. However, a lot of the material is, by its nature, very ugly. Horror connoisseurs will probably enjoy the blend of the horror conventions with the message. Others will prefer to get the message via other genres gentler than that of horror.

l. Impact of the horror film? The horror plot, style, techniques? contemporary American society?

2. The social and horror interests of Wes Craven, concern? Horror style in the tradition of his films and the American tradition?

3. Los Angeles, the world of the ghetto and its squalor, the mansion and its pleasant rooms, its cellar, the corridors behind the door? The special effects? Editing for scares and shocks, the musical score?

4. The title and the irony of who the people under the stairs were, how and why they got there? Torment in being imprisoned? Their tongues, being starved, no light or air?

5. The focus on the young boy, his nickname of Fool? His sister and the Tarot cards? Relationship with Ruby, in the apartment? The sick mother and her need for the operation? Grandfather and wisdom? Threat of eviction, rent?
The needs for the household? Leroy's visit, relationship with Ruby? The proposal about the robbery?

6. Fool and his being forced to join in the robbery, his decision? Dressing up as the boy scout, his encounter with Mother? The return to Leroy, his wanting to leave? Spencer and his wanting to go into the house, his, his fake card, pretending to read the gas meter, going in - his disappearance and Mother leaving?

7. Leroy and his decision to go into the house, going in with Fool, the difficulties of getting in, the rooms, the dog and its attack? The smell of the house, corridors, hiding? Mother’s return? The dogs, Leroy’s being chased, death? Fool and his fear, seeing Alice at the window, his being able to move himself through the corridors? His terror?

8.Mother and Father and their story? The background of their lives, family, inbred? Their personalities - the surface home beautiful magazine style? Yet their brutality towards Alice, the food, searching for the fork, hitting at the wall? The terror and the child abuse, the belting and cruelty? Audience attitude towards Father and Mother?

9. Mother and father and what they had done, the money and their greed? Leroy and his destruction, Spencer and the pit? Feeding the people under the stairs? The dog devouring the human flesh? Spencer and the ring? Cruelty? Use of technology in the house? Their being able to cover themselves? Their anger with Roach, pursuing him? Father’s chase through the corridors? For Roach, Fool, Alice? Fool chased and escaping? Alice not jumping from the roof? Speed in repairing the house, draining the pool, fixing the walls? Fooling the police? Their visit and search? Charm of the home beautiful and the cookies?

10. The people under the stairs and their story, visits to the house, cruelty, lack of air, food, light? Roach’s friendship with Alice? Disfigured, his tongue, yet his help? Alice and the truth about her adoption? Helping? Roach’s death?

11. Fool, his age, experience, wits, the continued chase? Getting out of the house, going back to the family, discussing with grandfather? His return to the house, confrontation with Mother? Ruby and the crowds of people at the door?

12. Mother and Father and their panic, Father and his leather Suit, the attacks, violence, the psychotic personalities? Their verbal abuse? The people getting out from under the stairs - and turning on Mother and father? Mother, the Confrontation with Alice, the knife, her death? Fool finding the coins? confrontation with Father? The explosion, his death? The money falling out of the sky and the people collecting it?

13. Mother and Father as monsters? The tradition of the horror film, the confrontation of the monsters? Struggles between good and evil, the setting of evil and the haunted house?

14. The social allegory, family and inbreeding, greed and the hoarding of money? The American surface and its niceness? Below the surface, madness? Child abuse? The dark side and evil? And the possibility of revolting against this control - black people and their rising up from the ghetto? The possibility of a more just world?