O Padrasto

The Stepfather is an excellent movie, I especially liked the lead actor playing Jerry. His performance set the whole feel of the movie, with his outbursts of rage until he finally snaps. He is also very intelligent, when he snaps he sets up a entire new life in another town before he kills his family. The story is Jerry has become the stepfather in a family of a beautiful, young widow and a lovely daughter. Unfortunately, Jerry has a very strict definition of the perfect family and his new family just may not be making the cut. When his family starts disappointing him, he's is willing to kill for the American Dream. A great movie, not really a horror as such, but more of a psychological thriller that makes you think.

The Stepfather has many memorable scenes. Terry O`Quinn portraits a very sick man, and this madness is made clear from the very start of the movie, when the (step)father has just killed his family and we are introduced to him as he removes his beard and in other ways alters his appearence to allow him to find another family and again become THE STEPFATHER. The most memorable scene for me is when he interrupts his step daughter on the porch kissing her date for the evening good night. The stepfather snaps, because he wants the family to remain static for ever, he is crazy. So then his wife comes down and she yells at the stepfather saying that he has ruined what they had built up. The expression on his face when hearing that is one of sheere terror. The stepfather is so fragile. The basement scene where the step daugther is getting something in the freezer and the stepfather rushes into the basement to let off some steem, not knowing she is there. It is all very scary.

watch it and see why. Terry O'Quinn is excellent as "The Stepfather" - Jerry Blake; the nemesis of his newly acquired daughter, portrayed by Jill Schoelen. Shelley Hack plays the unsuspecting mom, who does not realize what O'Quinn is capable of.

This film came out in 1987, and it is amusing to see the references to family values and security- all quaintly defined in small town suburbia. Jerry Blake (O'Quinn) is the new realtor in town, a perfect neighbor and family man; but something is awry- Dr. Bondurant is killed and strange occurrences crop up.

If you have never seen this film, it is a worthwhile suspense/thriller; there are also some beautiful scenes of the Pacific Northwest- you will enjoy this film for Halloween.

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

A psychotic serial killer and a master of disguise, Jerry Blake is obsessed with having an ideal family. He changes his identity and job and is always on the lookout for a new widow so that he can start a new family. Whenever any new family members do not comport with his expectations, he spirals into a spell of madness and attempts to brutally murder them. Inspite of being aware that his new stepdaughter doesn't like him, he tries hard to make it look like a complete happy family in front of neighbors. Blake is unaware that his last victim's/wife's brother is on his trail.

The brother of the last victim who is on the trail looks like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

Terry O'Quinn's acting is the highlight.

The direction n script is also well done.

The film moves at a good pace and it has ample amount of tension, suspense n creepiness. Am i the only one who found the movie a bit darkly comical too.

The scene where Jerry Blake puts one anonymous innocent moustachioed fella's photo in the envelope. I laughed out loud.

Jerry Blake's facial expressions aft seein his own photo in the mail.

The time Blake is caught off guard in the basement venting out some steam.

The way the doctor gives him a fake call as a prospective buyer jus to meet him.

I found all these darkly comical.

Jill Schoelen was 24 at the time, but she's playing a 16 year old in this movie and her nudity was a put off n uncalled for.

As a general rule, I don't quote dialogue from a movie in my comment summary (to me, it seems like the lazy thing to do), but the above line, as uttered by Terry O' Quinn towards the end of The Stepfather, is so perfectly delivered that I decided to make an exception. And this is just one of many genuinely chilling moments in this excellent 80s thriller that go to make it unmissable entertainment for anyone who loves scary movies.

The lovely Jill Schoelen plays troubled teen Stephanie, who has every right to be disturbed: her father died a year ago, and she suspects that her new stepfather, the seemingly perfect Jerry (O'Quinn), is a serial killer. Of course, Stephanie is right—Jerry IS a complete nutter: desperate to become part of a perfect American family, he marries widows and divorcées with children, but kills them when they fail to measure up to his exacting standards.

Jim Ogilvie, the brother of one of Jerry's past victims, is hot on the psycho's trail, but with Jerry becoming increasingly disappointed with his new stepdaughter, will Jim catch up with the maniac before another family is slaughtered?

Sharply written, with excellent direction from Joseph Ruben, and a brilliant central performance from O'Quinn, The Stepfather rarely puts a foot wrong. At a push, one might argue that Jerry's ability to adopt a new persona after each massacre is a touch too easy, but this is a minor quibble and doesn't affect the power of the film in any way. Schoelen is also superb, offering just the right balance of vulnerability and spunky bravado (plus we get to see her in the shower–hurrah!).

The Stepfather proved to be a minor success on it's original release, and inevitably spawned a sequel, but over the past two decades, it seems to have been forgotten by many (no-one at my place of work seemed to know anything about it). Now that a remake is in the pipeline, perhaps more people will choose to investigate the original; it's a film that certainly deserves to be rediscovered by the masses.