Le Beau-père

"The Stepfather" is a remake of the 1987 cult classic by the same name staring Terry O'Quinn. The story begins with Michael Harding (Penn Badgley) returning home from military school to find his mother (Sela Ward) happily in love and living with her new boyfriend, David (Dylan Walsh). 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 who he says he is or could David be hiding a dark side ? Along with his girlfriend Kelly (Amber Heard), his father Jay (Jon Tenney), and Susan's friends (Paige Turco and Sherry Stringfield), they slowly start to piece together the mystery of the man who is set to become his stepfather, but they may be too late in getting to the truth... In the last decade we've witnessed a lot of remakes and spin offs, most of them unnecessary, and that's the case with this film. And the reason why it is unnecessary, is because it doesn't add anything to the original besides a groovy soundtrack. The film doesn't really have a voice of its own, instead it's almost a play by play remake with a few differences to make it up to date. Despite being unnecessary, this remake is still quite enjoyable, however, it doesn't have the subtlety of the original and also Terry O'Quinn was much better as a protagonist then Dylan Walsh. O'Quinn had more charisma and delivered his lines with much more impact. And then there's a few things that drag the film down, like the sexualization of Amber Heard ( numerous shots of the young actress in her bikini and underwear, which I wouldn't mind, had it been done more tastefully instead of being a deliberate attempt to please the male audience), plus the poorly done makeovers of David and the lesbian subplot which made absolute no sense to me and seemed out of place. Despite all this, The Stepfather is still a nice little thriller and quite enjoyable, just know that the original is far better.

6/10

Having not seen the original version of The Stepfather I have to say that normally I'm not a fan of remakes, and usually, yes, I do loathe them because they always tend to be a load of crap (Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes for example..). However, since I haven't seen the original Stepfather film I can't compare them both, but what I have seen in this remake is something else. I was really, really impressed with this, and I am going to have to seek out the original now to see what it was like.

The Stepfather basically tells the story of "David" - a disturbed man who is apparently normal and caring on the outside but very unstable on the inside, both psychologically and emotionally and one of who lives a lot double lives, looking for recently divorced women to emotionally manipulate them and ultimately, breaks them down and kills them and any immediate family. I always compare him to the girl out of the Orphan because they both have nearly the same tactics at luring people into trusting them - in fact this movie reminded me of Orphan a lot. Anyway, when he senses he may be in danger of having his history found out, "David" takes even more extreme action to cover his steps up a lot quicker than he would normally do. "David" has been doing this many for years, and also has evaded capture from the police by changing his appearance and never using any ID when purchasing, for example a car. He always pays in cash, and always changes his appearance in somewhat way before moving onto his next victim. You may think it's a relatively simple plot, but the movie itself is a lot of fun and suspense. There's also a lot of psychological tension and build up as "David"'s new family become suspicious of his activities and his apparent lack of background information. As the movie progresses, things turn for the worse for the family he has deceived as they become wary of his background.

The acting is first class, and the guy who acts as "David", Dylan Walsh? I think that's his name. He is very convincing in his role. I honestly can't find one bad thing to say about this movie, as I definitely enjoyed it, and the build up of psychological suspense kept me watching until the very end of the credits. All in all it's quite excellent, and I've given it a 9 out of 10, simply losing one point because it is still a remake, but one that is excellent.

If you're a fan of Orphan or indeed, The Strangers, The Stepfather's psychological factors may just peek your interests here. Definitely a must watch at some point. Very enjoyable!

Maybe people are expecting more and more from films-its just a movie-its not your life. I thought as something to sit down and watch for a bit it was fair game. I have a technical mind and I always think about how many times they did a certain scene or how many scenes were left on the cutting floor for the finished product. Longer than usual, it was not very bloody which was kind of a relief, and it probably had more in common with the thrillers made in the 1950s, than something out of the modern age. In real life stepfather's can be an unwelcome event, so in that sense this movie taps a vein of something unsettling in the real world. Above average acting helped.

'The Stepfather' is a fairly decent thriller and slightly-slasher film in a time where films like this are horribly made. I've never seen the original 'Stepfather' film, but from what I can tell, this remake isn't too shabby. It has strong leads and a decent and straightforward script with good pacing. I loved the introduction of the film, where it explains how the "Stepfather" killer is able to kill a family and get away with it so many times. I like how there's never really a slow or boring part in the film. We like the main son, Michael, and his girlfriend. I think Penn Badgley and Amber Heard were good in their roles. I especially liked Dylan Walsh as the stepfather. Walsh made the character both likable and hated, and made him interesting. I didn't like how clueless the mom was; she's a complete idiot. One of the biggest problems the film had was the actions some of the characters took that didn't make sense. No one would logically marry someone they knew nothing about; it's just unrealistic. And there's one part where the stepfather walks out to his front lawn while there's a bunch of policemen right across the street. If you're a mass murderer on the run, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't make yourself that noticeable to the police. Also, the stepfather should have had the cell phone turned off from the beginning, not when someone's trying to call the cell phone. It's ridiculous. The stepfather's supposed to be a smart and clever guy, but we don't see that when he's with this new family. With all of this said and done, I felt that this remake of 'The Stepfather' didn't offer anything new, but it does entertain. I did like the ending and what happens to the stepfather; I felt it was a fairly good and interesting conclusion to the film. Though the ending may have felt rushed and quick, I was fine with it.

PS: This remake of 'The Stepfather' in a lot of ways felt like 2007′s 'Disturbia' (3 Kents out of 4!). I was constantly reminded of 'Disturbia' while I was watching 'The Stepfather.' However, I like 'Disturbia' more and think it was made better and more interesting. The third act of 'Disturbia' wasn't great, though, which I think the remake of 'The Stepfather' succeeds in – having the film go through a constantly interesting pace.

Dylan Walsh is a strong actor, but the material he's been given doesn't help him attempt to go toe to toe with Terry O'Quinn's iconic performance in the original. The stepchild's gender has been switched and Penn Badgley brings a lot of welcome vulnerability to the role while Sela Ward's concerned wife and mother doesn't get as much to do nor does Amber Heard as the concerned girlfriend.

The script has more cliches and bad scares than the original which hurts it a lot, but it's entertaining enough if you just want to decompress and watch something that doesn't require you to do much thinking.