The Stepdaughter

I'd never seen this before. And man was I shocked to see Tommy Gavin's wife Janet and super wow Buck Rogers is in it too!

This way over predictable schlock is really remindful of a Hallmark Channel movie. I mean it is really pretty bad.

The general gist of course is the silly stepdaughter becomes a creepy killer because of whatever background she had as if that's some sort of excuse. In the tradition of the Stepfather series of movies which were also fairly bad.

The movie is full of overused cliches and dumb characters. And the end was really bad and dumb. But at least there were closing words from Buck Rogers.

3/10.

An unsuspecting family takes in a woman named Susan (Andrea Roth), who claims to have been in a car accident. Of course, the viewers know that Susan has just committed a coldblooded murder. The victim just happens to work on the very ranch that Susan has now "stumbled" upon.

The family has no idea that this woman knows who they are. Only the daughter seems to smell a rat. Mom and dad are oblivious, and junior even goes so far as to take Susan to a cave to show her the bottomless pit he's discovered. No one else knows about it.

This could come in very handy!

THE STEPDAUGHTER is a suspenseful movie, though it's pretty obvious what Susan's up to and why she's picked this particular family. Her state of mind is shown to be... troubled. Especially, since she has a doll that she talks to. A lot! The tension builds well, and Ms. Roth's character is sly and diabolical...

The Stepdaughter? After watching this I am left wondering why it was even called that? Was there even a stepdaughter in it? Was Susan/Karen someone's stepdaughter?

But, on to the movie itself. It was interesting enough to keep you watching and wondering a little, but most of the time I spent groaning and rolling my eyes at the various plot holes and silliness. At times it is amazingly predictable, other times mildly suspenseful, but most times only slightly entertaining. My favorite cliches include the little "idiot" boy saving the day, the bumbling lawman, the good-looking big stud farm hand trying to force himself on her, and "I'm so crazy I talk to my doll". Then after all the buildup and clues start coming together... the payoff is very weak I felt.

I don't want to be all negative about any film, so I'll say that Andrea Roth does a good job as does Lisa Dean Ryan I thought. At least for what they had to work with.

4/10

The problem with this TV movie? It isn't trashy enough! Andrea Roth's portrayal of twisted anti-heroine Susan Heller is the saving grace of this tawdry thriller. She alternates sweetness and villainy well but there are times when she could have hammed it up more. I also found the structure of the film amateur. It starts improbably and little background information is revealed. It is not clear why Susan revisits the horse-ranch until more than half-way through. Little is revealed about Susan's mysterious upbringing, leaving her murderous deeds harder to understand. Another problem was the dour performance by the other daughter who was supposed to represent goodness in contrast to Susan's evilness. She was far from sympathetic, allowing Susan to take centre stage. Not the best of its genre.

A lot of these direct-to-video movies aren't always the greatest, because they obviously couldn't even make it to the theater. I have no clue why this wasn't in theaters. It wasn't all that bad. Andrea Roth and Lisa Dean Ryan were rather good, and the story was really great. I recommend this movie. I give The Stepdaughter a 7 out of 10. :)