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Stepfather, The
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 10 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 14 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: J.S. Cardone
Directed by: Nelson McCormick
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 16, 2009
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, mature thematic material and brief sensuality
Starring Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Penn Badgley, Sherry Stringfield, Jon Tenney, Paige Turco, and Amber Heard
Michael Harding returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend, David. As the two men get to know each other, Michael becomes more and more suspicious of the man who is always there with a helpful hand. Is he really the man of her dreams or could David be hiding a dark side? (Sony)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Tthe film is all of a piece, a handsome, thoughtfully crafted production that generates a mounting terror securely anchored by assured performances, consistent psychological persuasiveness and believable dialogue. What's most chilling about The Stepfather is that it was inspired by an actual incident in New Jersey in 1971.
Read Full Review >Variety John Anderson
McCormick's Stepfather boasts a decent script by J.S. Cardone, but it seems to have been made in a bubble, as if nothing had transpired in the world of slasher/horror since the late Donald Westlake ("The Grifters") wrote the much-respected original.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The trouble with the movie, apart from its rather monotonous dourness of tone, is that everyone in the family, especially the reformed-delinquent high school son (Penn Badgley), comes off as tougher, smarter, and quicker on the draw than the stepfather who's supposed to be outfoxing them.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
As such things go, it’s not bad: slick and proficient, The Stepfather 2.0 gets the adrenaline pumping, but the original has the brains.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen
Whereas the 1987 horror hit The Stepfather was top-notch drive-in fare, this perfunctory retread had a tame, made-for-TV feel.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Nick Pinkerton
The kickoff is good -- the finale effectively literalizes the expression “broken home” -- but director Nelson McCormick doesn’t keep things “taut” in between. Rather than do scenes right the first time, he tends to déjà vu them (this usually involves Amber Heard, wearing not-too-much).
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
This remake turns a fondly remembered horror/thriller into a mild and tedious suspense film.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Walsh is just a dumb bully who can’t see more than one or two steps ahead. He’s doomed to generic slasher villainy, and the film thoughtlessly obliges.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
ricky may gave it a10:
The Stepfather is freakin awesome! this movie is a thrill a minute suspense ride from the opening scene up to the final one Dylan Walsh is amazing
Chad S. gave it a3:
Five years after "The Stepfather" was released, Vice President Dan Quayle delivered a speech that codified the term "family values" as a demagogic catchphrase for self-righteous conservatives, in which the spelling-challenged former senator from the Hoosier State, famously criticized a television character's choice to raise a child on her own. While this remake of the Joseph Ruben original is too diffuse, too preoccupied with its teen-centric focus on young love, the satirical possibilities of a man with with a double life who hypocritically promotes the two-parent household, is still there, albeit such ideological strands are never properly developed. Susan Harding(the transcending beauty Sela Ward), a recent divorcee and mother of two, has lesbian friends, a couple played by, incidentally enough, television stalwarts Sherry Stringfield("ER") and Paige Turico("NYPD Blue"). Since David Harris(Dylan Harris), a traditionalist with high moral standards, clearly disapproves of pre-marital sex(the stepfather keeps an eagle-eye on Michael and his girlfriend), the moviegoer would be inclined to think that Susan's friends are sinners in his book, as well. In order to bypass any overt, or even subtle political(and more importantly, religious) undertones, it's never made clear as to how David feels about their "alternative lifestyle". [***SPOILER ALERT***] On the surface, David has to murder one of the lesbians because she knows too much, but in a film conspicuously absent of religion, a baptismal subtext persists itself on the, otherwise, apolitical(and secularized) diegesis, as the woman is drowned by the morally superior father, in a swimming pool. It looks like he's "saving" her.
