The Stepfather is a 1987 psychological horror movie with some slasher film elements loosely based on the life of John List - a man who was imprisoned 18 years after committing a mass murder of his family including his mother, wife, and three children. He was apprehended thanks to the TV show America's Most Wanted which had just started to air at the time. The episode with his case had presented a clay bust sculpture that resembled what he may have looked like at the time and it was accurate enough to have him incarcerated. Though it was never clear what his mental illness was, symptoms bear resemblance to an independent neurotic disorder referred to as depersonalization-derealization syndrome. Bascially, this is where a person feels detached from his or her own thoughts and sometimes even his or her own body.
Maybe John List was diagnosed with another type of mental illness, but you can definitely categorize Jerry Blake as someone who is constantly finding a reinvention of himself by moving from family to family while changing his identity along the way. So who is Jerry Blake? We don't know. He begins in the movie as Henry Morrison. Who is Henry Morrison? We don't really know...
But we have an idea. Well, kind of...
Before a transitional phase...
The movie opens with an autumnal, suburban neighborhood with the camera panning to a nice house. You then quickly get the feeling of bleak grimness as it shows Henry (brilliantly played by Terry O'Quinn) washing blood off his face and hands in the bathroom. He starts out as a bearded man with glasses and soon changes into a clean-shaven man with colored contacts to help change his physical appearance. With packed suitcase in hand, he walks down the hall and straightens up some toys along the way, only for you, the viewer, to soon gaze upon his grisly handy work - butchered children, a slain wife, blood and crooked pictures all over the walls, and furniture scattered around the house. The final of these opening scenes shows Henry throwing the suitcase overboard from a ferry into the ocean to forget the family he was once a part of and has now murdered.
Home is where the hearts are...
A disturbing image appearing only five minutes into the film.
ONE YEAR LATER
Henry, now under his new identity as a real estate agent named Jerry Blake, has moved on and married a widow named Susan Maine (Shelly Hack) who has a teenage daughter Stephanie (played by the amazing Jill Schoelen). We learn quickly that Stephanie is having a hard time dealing with her father's death and is seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Bondurant, to help her cope. He suggests that Stephanie give her new stepfather a chance but much convincing is in order for her to do so. Even the new puppy he gives her does not sell him to her; she senses something about him that makes her uncomfortable. You, the viewer, already knows what the hell is wrong with him, but signs with this new family start to show when Susan asks Jerry about his childhood and he says the past doesn't matter, avoiding the subject altogether.
Introduced next is a man name Jim Ogilvie who is on the hunt for Jerry; his sister was married to Jerry (when he was Henry) and was the wife which was shown murdered at the beginning of the film. Jim wants answers and we watch his progress throughout the movie in intercepted scenes. He runs an article in the paper about his sister's murder and while at a family barbecue that he is hosting, Jerry is handed a newspaper and discovers the article which has been printed. He retreats to the basement to basically throw a maniacal shit-fit and he is unaware Stephanie is down there watching him in a disturbed silence. He turns and discovers her standing there and laughs his temper off as just him "blowing off steam".
Suspecting him as the murderer after seeing the newspaper article herself, Stephanie writes a letter to the newspaper inquiring about Henry and requests a photo of him. One day while Jerry is checking the mail, he finds the parcel in the mail addressed to Stephanie from the newspaper and throws yet another basement fit. He replaces the picture in the envelope with a head shot of another male and thwarts her potential accusations that Jerry is in fact the wanted killer. Stephanie expresses an almost disappointment to her psychiatrist that she was wrong in her suspicions. By this time also, Jerry has now succeeded in getting her back into school after she had been expelled. Her doctor is still intrigued by Stephanie's notions and schedules an appointment with Jerry under an assumed name, saying that he is interested in a specific house to look at to buy.
The scenes where Dr. Bondurant and Jerry are exchanging words become very uncomfortable as you realize Doc lets a mistake slip. He enters the house saying that he's a confirmed bachelor and then lets it slip that he is married. He quickly tries to cover it up by saying he's divorced but Jerry is already filled with rage and beats Dr. Bonderant with a large piece of wood and then takes his car to the edge of a cliff where he places the body in the car and lights the gas tank on fire. The car goes over the cliff and goes up in flames. The next day he informs Stephanie of her doctor's death and tries to be the shoulder that she leans on...but, still she is apprehensive about who Jerry is and unsure that he is a good person.
"I don't think this house is for you; this house is for a family."
In the next few scenes involving Jim's search for Jerry, it shows Jim going back to the house where the murders occurred. While searching the house, Jim finds a magazine where pages have been removed. In an act of impressive amateur detective work, Jim hunts down the issue of the magazine at a library and finds that on the pages which have been removed was a list of top cities to raise a family. He traces where Jerry could be in a radius of all the cities and eventually finds where he lives. He stops by and Susan is the one who answers the door and finds Jim suspicious.
By this time, Jerry has already had his falling out with Susan and Stephanie after he interrupts Stephanie and her boyfriend's good night kiss on the front porch doorstep. Jerry opens the door and accuses the boy of practically raping Stephanie and in anger Susan tells Jerry, "I've known that boy longer than I've known you!" This sets off Jerry's switch and there is clearly no turning back for him. In the proceeding scenes, Jerry spends his days removing himself from his current job and finding a new home with a new family to marry into. When he succeeds, then it's time to kill Susan and Stephanie.
After Jim leaves the house asking for Jerry, Susan phones the real estate agency where Jerry works to inform him that someone is looking for him. She is then told by the lady on the phone that Jerry quit several days before. He tries to cover up by telling her that the new receptionist got his name wrong only to fuck his own name up when he confuses his own identity and yells at Susan saying, "Hodgkins! What's to get wrong?". She responds with, "What did you say?" and he eerily spaces out for a moment and says the movie's tagline, "Wait a minute. Who am I here?" She inadvertently answers by questioning him and saying his name which he then is suddenly reminded who he is and thanks her for the reminder as he proceeds to slam the telephone across Susan's face. After knocking her down the stairs into the cellar, he assumes that she is dead and waits for Stephanie to come home.
Jim shows back up at the house and instead of being the asset to Susan and Stephanie that he could be, he quickly gets killed by Jerry who stabs him to death. Stephanie, who was already in the house and upstairs taking a shower is next on Jerry's list. The chase scenes in the house between Stephanie and Jerry are intense and really build up suspense in the film's final moments. In particular, the attic scene has some effective lighting which helps make the dark moments darker. After Jerry falls through the floor of the attic, Stephanie finds that Susan is still alive and is holding the gun Jim possessed when he arrived at the house. Jerry, who was stabbed in the chest by Stephanie with a chunk of the shattered bathroom mirror, is now facing the wrath of Susan who is shooting him from the bottom of the stairs. Stephanie makes the final stab in Jerry's chest which ultimately kills him. Before he falls down the stairs, he looks down at Stephanie and mumbles, "I love you."
"Daddy's Home and He's Not Very Happy" - one of the film's many taglines
Coming to VHS in 1987, I barely remember when this movie was on the "New Release" wall of the movie stores; however, I do remember the first time I rented it and watched it in the summer of 1991. The opening scenes disrupted my enjoyment for my bowl of popcorn and wondered if I should really watch this movie alone in the dark. I didn't shut the movie off. Instead I discovered a movie which provoked some unnerving feelings that I rarely felt before. The movie is near perfect with top-notch performances, a great script, and excellent pacing. It's a classic in horror cinema, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you this. Chances are, if you're reading this blog you already are a fan of this movie. Now go watch it and pop yourself a giant bowl of popcorn. If you're easily disturbed though, maybe hold off the popcorn until the first ten minutes of the movie have passed.
Love it and the sequel! Another good review, Vanessa :)
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