Le Beau-père

I have to give this movie a favorable review only because it delivered something it didn't promise and that took me by surprise. The Stepfather, as I'm sure you all know, is a remake (reboot?) of the 80's slasher series that set the tone for every darn Lifetime movie starring Valerie Bertinelli or Nancy McKeon. A desperate divorcée falls for a mysterious guy who, despite telegraphing to the audience how evil he secretly is, manages to fool his fiancée and her family into thinking that he's a swell guy....that is, until the body count starts. The plot isn't worth discussing. There's nothing here that we haven't seen before. What IS worth discussing is the director's obvious decision to exploit Amber Heard's lovely figure in one long never ending cheesecake sequence. You could make the argument that the ONLY reason this film was even made in the first place was to launch Amber into the stratosphere of blogworthy sex symbols (not unlike what Michael Bay managed to do with Megan Fox). You'll see Amber in her underwear lounging in bed, Amber in her itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini, gratuitous close-ups of her splendid anatomy, etc. This exploitation becomes so flagrant that it distracts from the story itself, which is probably a good thing. In a way the Stepfather 2009 comes off more like a 70's Drive-In flick; the kind teenagers would flock to in hopes of seeing a little skin. Maybe that was the point after all? I sure hope it was. The movie certainly doesn't deliver much else.

"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

Michael Harding returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend, David. 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 the man of her dreams or could David be hiding a dark side?

THE STEPFATHER is a sufficient thriller that gets the job done the way you expect it to. It has suspense, good performances, and is well made. I haven't seen the original film starring Terry O'Quinn so I can't compare it with the remake. However, I can say the remake is entertaining and is engaging while it lasts. What more can you ask for?

The thing that I liked the most here was the family dynamics. I didn't know what to expect from Penn Badgley, who plays the main character, but he pulls off a very convincing performance. Sela Ward as the mother is just great and the pretty blond who shows some skin, Amber Heard, can actually act! Paige Turco and Jon Tenney were really good in their roles as well. However, it's obvious that Dylan Walsh is the main star of the film. He does a fantastic job as the crazy stepfather. Some of his scenes just gave me chills.

There's also quite a bit of suspense in here, which surprised me. Sure, there's one cat jump scare (don't you just hate those?), but that's forgivable because there was only one. Some of the death scenes were quite disturbing as well. Being a PG-13 movie and all, you might expect death scenes with no blood to be quite "lame," as they say it, but that's where you're wrong. They're pretty realistic and not over the top as you might have seen in other films.

If there's one thing I must complain about, it's the payoff. I thought it was way too short and that it could have been longer. In the end, however, the remake keeps you very interested until the very end. There's rarely any moment where you'll find yourself looking at your watch because the thriller gets the job done and does it efficiently and effectively.

Though a lot of the elements were typical and expected in this movie, it still held interest and had a few good 'gotcha' moments. However, as it neared the end, it seemed that the editor just hacked together an ending to shorten the movie down because it was in danger of actually being two hours long. In fact, one of the coolest terror scenes in the trailer was when the circular saw falls from the attic and dangles over the girlfriend, (like Vincent Price's Pit and the Pendulum) but guess what? It's NOT in the movie. I was ticked off. Now, I know some scenes are in a trailer and don't make it to the final cut, but come on! It's the last shots in the trailer and the most terrifyingly memorable! It's false advertising at it's worst! Oh well, hopefully it will be in the DVD release, making that a good reason to skip seeing it in the theaters.

Sadly the popularity of this film hinges on the reality that way too many men marry into a family and think they can have everything go their way without regard for how the children have been raised before they came along. Kids love to push boundaries and rarely ever accept the 'new dad' as anything more than an ATM, so the guy let's his frustration build to the point where he explodes on them, losing all credibility and respect. Obviously they don't all become psycho killers, but the abuses run rampant in today's society, so it's no surprise why so many teens are eager to see this film.

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!