Reviewed by Melissa Garza
Michael (Penn Badgley) returns home from military school to find his newly divorced mother Susan (Sela Ward) engaged to David (Dylan Walsh) a man he has never met and his mother had only met a short time ago. Michael immediately suspects something is off with his soon-to-be stepfather, though he tries for his mother’s sake to get along. David tries his best to bring the family unit together. He assures Michael that he will not put his back into military school and more than that he goes to bat for Michael gaining permission for him to utilize the swimming pool at his former high school despite his rebellious history. Mike becomes grateful and goes the extra mile to make things work by agreeing to be David’s best man in the upcoming nuptials.
Things don’t remain calm for long as the elderly cat lady neighbor warns Susan she has seen David on America’s Most Wanted. Though Susan dismisses her as crazy and senile, David seeks to immediately silence her. Matters grow even worse when Susan’s ex-husband Jay (Jon Tenney) shows up angry because their youngest son has told him that David strangled him. Jay eventually leaves but looks into David’s past to find out that he has been lying about his past.
All of the cards slowly begin to fall as Susan’s friends become suspect of David. Jackie (Paige Turco) hires David into a real estate position. When she requests his personal information for tax purposes, he quits which only causes more raised eyebrows. Soon, the pressure becomes too much for him and he slowly descends into madness revealing himself for the murdering madman.
This was one of the few remakes, I went into with expectations. The trailer looked promising and being a fan of the original I believed that modernizing the basic plot may make for a good watch. Unfortunately, the film had no focus. Instead of ensuring that the viewers understood David’s perspective and motive throughout the film, the movie jumped back-and-forth between supporting characters who all felt something was wrong. There was no development of characters and no insight into them at all. They were decoration that was forced into a plot that didn’t need them to begin with.
With the exception of Dylan Walsh and Sela Ward, the acting left much to be desired. Both Penn and his on-screen girlfriend Kelly (Amber Heard) are difficult to watch. The conversations are plastic and the exchanges are not only without chemistry but seem phony and fake. Neither of the characters could muster the slightest level of integrity.
The entire movie played out more like an episode of 90210 than an actual movie. The death scenes are quick and easy. The characters are empty therefore impossible to care about any of them. Even David doesn’t have any of the sympathy carried over from the original because the character does not express the same level of insanity or need to create the perfect family. Those pivotal scenes are absent. Instead, like a nighttime soap opera, drama is created without reason. Friction between the teenagers are thrown in simply to get to a certain point within the plot but without any drive from the plot itself. There’s no reason for it.
I would have been happy if “The Stepfather” was watch able. I would’ve been satisfied had there been any shred of the original displayed, but even those minimal expectations could not be met. I was literally falling asleep throughout the production. It was boring, uninteresting, and a sad display of what the mainstream has done to horror movies.
Scared Stiff Rating: 3/10