Stepfather III

The return of psycho Jerry Blake (Terry O'Quinn) in Stepfather II proved that he was impossible to kill, and sure enough, here he is again, up to his old tricks despite the claw-hammer to the chest he received at the end of Jeff Burr's sequel. Part three also shows 'the stepfather' to be impervious to pain, the killer having plastic surgery to alter his face (and, miraculously, his voice and hairline) all without the need for anaesthetic. With his new look (the character now played by Robert Wightman, who resembles Jim Carrey with a touch of Christian Bale), the killer once again goes looking for the ideal family unit.

This time, the murderous loony - now calling himself Keith Grant - marries divorcee Christine Davis (Priscilla Barnes), once again without the need of a birth certificate or any kind of legal documentation, but her wheelchair-bound amateur detective son Andy (David Tom) isn't convinced of his new stepfather's apparent good intentions. When Christine learns that she cannot have any more children, and Andy goes to stay with his father for the summer, Grant becomes angry that his family is no longer perfect and starts to romance widow Jennifer (Season Hubley) in preparation for his next move. Meanwhile, Andy has been investigating Grant's mysterious past and begins to suspect that his stepfather is a serial killer.

Those familiar with the series' formula will no doubt know how the film will pan out, Grant killing anyone who threatens to spoil his plans, before turning his murderous intentions to Christine; this time around, the deaths are a tad gorier despite this being a made-for-TV movie (Grant uses a bone saw and a rake, and a wood-chipper comes into play at the end), but this is still a very tired three-quel lacking in originality and genuine thrills, and which, at 110 minutes, is at least 20 minutes too long.

Ok! 1 was great, 2 was ok, but this one is pushing it a bit far. Obviously Terry O'quinn didn't want to do this so they made up the storyline that the stepfather had his face changed so that he could go on with his murderous ways. With an annoying wheelchair-bound son to boot, we recommended surfing right past this film.

While I think it's a very unnecessary sequel, giving that the antagonist miraculously survived fatal injuries that would've killed a normal/any other person (Knife stabs and the claw-hammer to the chest/heart he received at the end of part 2) I still found it to be entertaining. One performance, particularly, stood out from the entire cast and made this unnecessary, straight to video sequel a lot more fun to watch- and that was the youngest, David Tom playing the wheel-chaired young son. It's not very often that we see young actors with such talent. He was very convincing and believable in his role as the young suspicious son. They did a great job casting him, and got lucky with that too. He played a very big factor in my rating of this film. Now the whole plastic surgery concept thing is just ridiculous and over the top. They obviously did it because the actor Terry O'Quinn just didn't wanna do it anymore (He was probably like what?! The character never died?! I have to do the same thing over and over again?!) So they should've just literally started all over with a different villain, a different character who's just like Terry from the original with the same fascination over single mothers and divorcees. Maybe like inspired by him or something? As opposed to him getting plastic surgeries in the face to alter the way he looks. Like what about his voice and accent? Sounds very amateurish like a cheap lifetime movie or some soap opera show or something. All in all, it's not a bad end of franchise sequel, knowing that he won't be coming back after the way he dies in this. I've seen way worse movie sequels, but it's not amazing either.

Keith Grant (Robert Wightman) seems like an ideal choice for a husband. He's the new single man on the block, cheerful, polite, morally sound and employed at a successful neighborhood greenhouse. Unfortunately, Keith is also the same mass murderer played by Terry O'Quinn in the two previous entries. Thanks to the miracle of plastic surgery, the psycho is now a new man (literally) and is free to continue on in his psychotic search for the "perfect" family. He meets, romances and marries a schoolteacher (Priscilla Barnes) with a prodigal, computer-obsessed, wheelchair-bound son (David Tom), who sees right through Keith's facade. And they're not perfect so you know what to expect.

Wightman has his hands full trying to fill in for the wonderful O'Quinn, and comes off more nerdy and weird than psychotic and calculating. That aside, this third entry is acceptable genre fare, with a good supporting cast, realistic characters and some stupid fun with a garden mulch machine.

Score: 4 out of 10

Terry O'Quinn was fantastic as the antagonist in the previous films, he made them entertaining and better than by all rights they should have been.

Having a sequel without him in was just asking for trouble but to Robert Wightman's credit he actually did a good job.

Sadly the film starts off poorly, the very concept of the plastic surgery is quite frankly offensive to the viewers! If you can get past that this is essentially the same film as the previous two and is a passable if much not needed effort.

The one difference here is that our antagonist decides that one family isn't enough and pry's himself into the lives of two while desperately trying to keep them apart.

This is harmless enough stuff but in many ways felt more like a Lifetime original than a Stepfather movie.

The Good:

Strong performance by Robert Wightman

The Bad:

Plastic surgery concept is ridiculous