Hellbilly
12-28-2003, 08:49 PM
Who Am I Here?
Gotta cut Jerry Blake (Terry O'Quinn) some slack damnit! Poor fella. All he ever wanted was the perfect family but no such luck with Susan (Shelley Hack), the woman he married a year ago.
She's a bit naive but attractive and has a nice little house - but she also has a bitchy, mentally instable, violent & slutty 16 year old daughter: Stephanie.
Stephanie (Jill Schoelen) is trouble all the way. She's quite the suspicious kind, snooping around in "Scary Jerry's" past, hanging out with boys etc and making Jerry very very angry.
And you don't wanna get Jerry angry ... and you certainly don't want to destroy Jerry's dream of the perfect family.
Once Jerry snaps all hell will break loose ...
Critics were thrilled but The Stepfather was a box-office bomb back in 1987. Sort of became a cult fave once it was released on video and shown on TV.
Director Joseph Ruben (Dreamscape) pulled off a decent and suspenseful little thriller that still holds up to this day I'd say. The action is tight and the tension builds and doesn't stop. There's also some black humor ("what if your Stepfather finds out you got suspended from school? - He's going to kill me!") and the score is marvelous.
And yeah, kudos to Terry O'Quinn for making his complex character quite believable.
He's very good at playing the Über-Father and even better playing the psycho. Gotta love those fits he throws in the cellar!
Great performance by Jill Schoelen aswell ... I totally forgot she had a NUDE shower scene :)
http://www.haikosfilmlexikon.de/anbieter/marketing/2003/stepfather-1.jpg
Little trivia: The Stepfather was first released as SCREAM FOR HELP 2 (!) in Germany. They later changed it to KILL, DADDY, KILL! and now it goes by it's original title.
Marketing released a box set with all three Stepfather films and a single edition of the first one which I bought since I already own part 2 and didn't care about part 3.
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 (16:9) Great transfer. Very strong colors and (mostly) free of dirt and specks.
Audio: English 2.0 Stereo. Does the job.
Extras: The usual Marketing stuff: English & German theatrical trailer, bio's & info's (in German language). Alternative opening sequences (UK & Germany) and trailers for other releases (Halloween).
This disc is highly recommended but watch out, there'a another German R2 release from CMV which has German language tracks only and a 1.33:1 foolscreen print.
Gotta cut Jerry Blake (Terry O'Quinn) some slack damnit! Poor fella. All he ever wanted was the perfect family but no such luck with Susan (Shelley Hack), the woman he married a year ago.
She's a bit naive but attractive and has a nice little house - but she also has a bitchy, mentally instable, violent & slutty 16 year old daughter: Stephanie.
Stephanie (Jill Schoelen) is trouble all the way. She's quite the suspicious kind, snooping around in "Scary Jerry's" past, hanging out with boys etc and making Jerry very very angry.
And you don't wanna get Jerry angry ... and you certainly don't want to destroy Jerry's dream of the perfect family.
Once Jerry snaps all hell will break loose ...
Critics were thrilled but The Stepfather was a box-office bomb back in 1987. Sort of became a cult fave once it was released on video and shown on TV.
Director Joseph Ruben (Dreamscape) pulled off a decent and suspenseful little thriller that still holds up to this day I'd say. The action is tight and the tension builds and doesn't stop. There's also some black humor ("what if your Stepfather finds out you got suspended from school? - He's going to kill me!") and the score is marvelous.
And yeah, kudos to Terry O'Quinn for making his complex character quite believable.
He's very good at playing the Über-Father and even better playing the psycho. Gotta love those fits he throws in the cellar!
Great performance by Jill Schoelen aswell ... I totally forgot she had a NUDE shower scene :)
http://www.haikosfilmlexikon.de/anbieter/marketing/2003/stepfather-1.jpg
Little trivia: The Stepfather was first released as SCREAM FOR HELP 2 (!) in Germany. They later changed it to KILL, DADDY, KILL! and now it goes by it's original title.
Marketing released a box set with all three Stepfather films and a single edition of the first one which I bought since I already own part 2 and didn't care about part 3.
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 (16:9) Great transfer. Very strong colors and (mostly) free of dirt and specks.
Audio: English 2.0 Stereo. Does the job.
Extras: The usual Marketing stuff: English & German theatrical trailer, bio's & info's (in German language). Alternative opening sequences (UK & Germany) and trailers for other releases (Halloween).
This disc is highly recommended but watch out, there'a another German R2 release from CMV which has German language tracks only and a 1.33:1 foolscreen print.