Product Details

• Actors: Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, Shelley Hack, Charles Lanyer, Stephen Shellen
• Directors: Joseph Ruben
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Embassy/Nelson Ent. - O.B.
• VHS Release Date: August 5, 1992
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300150747
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,258 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WHY ISN'T THIS ON DVD???, October 17, 2005

By	Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Stepfather 2 & 3 are on DVD nad yet the original still is not. What kind of sense does that make? The late 80's/early 90's gave us a whole series of what I call "the ____ from hell" type of movie. Fatal Attraction gave us the affair from hell, Pacific Heights gave us the tenant from hell, and The Hand that Rocked the Cradle gave us the nanny from hell. As the title suggests, "Stepfather" was the stepfather from hell starring Terry O' Quinn, one of my favorite character actors.

Quinn is Jerry Blake...or maybe he isn't. Blake is a homicidal maniac looking for the perfect family in the perfect neighborhood. all he wants is the 1950's style Americana life with a nice white picket fence, a family that has dinner together and plays together. He marries Susan (Shelly Hack) who has a teenage daughter Stephanie (Jill Schoelen). Stephanie begins to suspect something isn't quite right about Jerry and begins checking him out. This infuriates Jerry who finds her rebellious leading to numerous run-ins. Jerry then takes on another alias and begins scouting for a new family. Meanwhile a member of the last family that Jerry killed is on his trail looking to kill him before Jerry can kill another family.

Terry O' Quinn is fantastic in his role moving from a Mr. Brady/Father Knows Best dad to a raging maniac at the drop of a hat. When everything goes well, Jerry is the loving father and husband everyone would want, but when things don't live up to his expectations...well...Look out! A very underrated slasher that is as much psychological horror as it is slasher film. Hopefully this will be on DVD soon. Great film!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No one can act like a psyco like terry :-), January 2, 2005

By	Tonya "tweetycraze" (USA) - See all my reviews

Loved it! Awesome movie. Only Terry O'Quinn can pull off being a psycho in this great horror flick. My only gripe is why is this movie not on dvd? I have stepfather 2 on dvd also a great horror movie! I recommend stepfather and stepfather 2.Was not pleased with stepfather 3 because Terry is not in it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still one of the best, April 23, 2002

By	Jeffrey Ellis "bored recluse" (Richardson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nearly twenty years after its initial release, Joseph Ruben's The Stepfather remains one of the best horror films of the 1980s. The Stepfather is based on the true story of Joseph List, a suburban accountant who was described as the ideal neighbor and was apparently just an all-around great guy as long as you didn't hold the weekend when he happened to brutally murder his entire family against him. The movie's version of List is blandly friendly real estate agent, Jerry Blake. As played by Terry O'Quinn, Jerry is a rather likeable sort -- the type of suburban dad who makes Ward Cleaver look like a degenerate. He's the type of guy who rarely loses his temper in public, never says anything aloud that could be found offensive, and who is always ready to great the world with a smile.

Unfortunately, Jerry has one, big problem. He expects the rest of the world to be as perfect as he sees himself as being and when the world fails to live up to that ideal, he has a tendency to go on a killing rampage. Presumably, that's why he kills his first family shortly before the film's opening credits. The rest of the movie follows Jerry as he moved to yet another wholesome suburban street and romances single mom Shelly Hack. Hack is charmed by the polite, responsible man who speaks so sincerely about how much he loves family. Her rebellious teenage daughter (Jill Schoelen) is a little less charmed. In fact, she knows something is off about Jerry from the beginning and, despite Jerry's best attempts to turn her life into an old Saturday Evening Post cover, she remains convinced that there's something not quite right about her stepdad. The more she rebels, the closer Jerry comes to snapping once again.

The Stepfather is often referred to as a slasher film and it does have many things in common with that much maligned genre -- Jerry is a remorseless, at times unstoppable killer and the main target of his wrath is a teenager. However, what sets the Stepfather apart from the Friday the 13ths of the world is Terry O'Quinn. As Jerry, O'Quinn creates one of cinema's most terrifying psychos and it is his performance that gives the film its haunting power. O'Quinn wisely underplays Jerry's madness and, in scenes where he's not killing, actually makes this killer a sympathetic figure. Indeed, the film's most terrifying moments come not when Jerry starts killing but instead during the scenes where a frustrated Jerry goes down to his pristine basement and starts muttering to himself about how nobody understands the sacrifices that he makes to keep everyone happy. It is in these scenes that we see truly see the sociopathic monster lurking so closely under the surface of Blake's friendly smile and the scenes are all the more disturbing because many viewers will probably be reminded of times when they had similar thoughts. Mention should also be made of Schoelen who doesn't play the heroine as a typical idealized horror film teen but instead reveals that her character, at times, can be a spoiled, sullen brat -- in other words, a typical teenager who isn't perfect but doesn't deserve to be murdered either. Indeed, Jill Schoelen's character is probably the most believable and sympathetic horror film heroine since Jamie Lee Curtis in the original Halloween.

The film is well directed by genre master Joseph Ruben who wisely emphasizes the blandness of his suburban setting and keeps the plot moving at a good pace. The script, by novelist Donald Westlake (who, writing as Richard Stark, created Parker, another strangely sympathetic monster) is full of nicely quirky moments and avoids most horror film cliches. Ignore the amazingly unworthy sequels and instead, watch the Stepfather and see just how brilliant the horror genre can be.