[Screen It]

 

"THE STEPFATHER"
(2009) (Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward) (PG-13)

If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button.
Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film.

QUICK TAKE:
Suspense/Thriller: A sociopathic killer charms his way into a broken family and tries to be the perfect husband and stepfather, but when the pressure is too much, he plots their murder.
PLOT:
When lonely divorcee and mother of three Susan Harding (SELA WARD) meets kindly, handsome, young widower David Harris (DYLAN WALSH) in a supermarket, she is instantly attracted. Six months later, the two are engaged to be married. They throw a big party to celebrate their impending union and to welcome home Susan's oldest Susan, Michael (PENN BADGLEY), who has been shipped off to military school for disciplinary reasons.

Michael is immediately suspicious of the too-good-to-be-true David, and with good reason. He is secretive and keeps a whole host of basement cabinets and drawers under lock and key. He has oddly timed anger outbursts, such as the time he grabbed younger brother Sean (BRAEDEN LEMASTERS) by the neck when he wasn't listening to his mother to turn down a video game. He virtually ignores Susan's young daughter, Beth (SKYLER SAMUELS). Most telling, elderly neighbor Mrs. Cutter (NANCY LINEHAN CHARLES) thinks she has seen David on "America's Most Wanted" as a man who slaughtered his previous family.

Soon after, Mrs. Cutter winds up dead. An increasingly frantic Michael tries to enlist his girlfriend, Kelly (AMBER HEARD) to help him, but she remains skeptical. As it turns out, David is indeed a serial killer who tries to fix broken families and then murders them when they don't bend to his wishes.

Several people try and warn Susan, ranging from Michael and Sean's biological father, Jay (JON TENNEY), to her sister Jackie (PAIGE TURCO) and her lesbian lover Leah (SHERRY STRINGFIELD). Only when David is truly cornered and the truth is about to come out does he show his true colors. And then it might be too late for all of the Hardings.

OUR TAKE: 3 out of 10
Our reviewing policy for films that aren't shown in advance to critics (or are done so late the night before they open) is that we'll only provide a paragraph or two about the film's artistic merits or, more accurately, lack thereof. After all, life is too short to spend any more effort than that on a movie that even the releasing studio knows isn't any good (which is why they hid it from reviewers before its release).

Let's make this quick, shall we? "The Stepfather" is a deeply lame thriller that you should not waste your time or money on. It starts off as a remake of the entertaining low-budget slasher pic from 1987 that gave Terry O'Quinn of "Lost" his first major role. It ends as a toothless retread of "Disturbia" with C-listers in the roles of Shia LaBeouf, Carrie-Anne Moss and David Morse.

Dylan Walsh is all milquetoast menace as David Harris, a sociopath who specializes in marrying lonely divorcees or widows with kids, then slaughters them when they don't bend to his vision of what the perfect family should be. Sela Ward's kind-hearted Susan Harding plays the target. But director Nelson McCormick plugs too many dumb characters into the thin plot, including a suspicious teenage son (Penn Badgley), an even more suspicious aunt (Paige Turco), and a deeply suspicious ex-husband (Jon Tenney). Guess who lives and who dies?

On second thought, don't. Just don't. "The Stepfather" rates as a 3 out of 10. (T. Durgin)




Reviewed Oct. 17, 2009 / Posted Oct. 17, 2009.


Privacy Statement and Terms of Use and Disclaimer
By entering this site you acknowledge to having read and agreed to the above conditions.

All Rights Reserved,
©1996-2023 Screen It, Inc.