Review of The Stepfather (2009) by Solutions10 — 12 Oct 2011

Okay, so I first saw this on blu-ray, which is unrated. I did not know the theatrical was PG-13. I sort of looking for a bloody slasher film with a psychopathic stepfather, you know, something that excites me on a boring evening.

I'm not sure what the differences were between the unrated and PG-13 versions, but no matter how you look at it, this film really doesn't work, despite its great premise (I wasn't aware it was a remake until later).

He's supposed to be the guy everybody trusts, your classic closet serial killer who's otherwise normal...well, almost otherwise normal. For a guy who's supposed to be a step ahead of everyone else, it's pretty clear he's not one of the brighter killers to exist.

It's like he's asking to be caught, with how he suddenly quits his job because he has to provide identification, murders people who think he's suspicious, and even keeps his **** browser history intact on his computer.

Seriously? He doesn't even manage to clear his browser history? Couldn't he have at least made a separate user account on Windows so no one else could see it? But no, he decides to leave his entire web activity available for public eye, which, big surprise, helps a lot in his eventual discovery.

The "cell phone with low battery" trick is actually used here, which hasn't been suspenseful for at least a decade. He somehow loses a fight to a teenager who is clearly a worse fighter, tries to cover up his evidence with a lock that someone simply forces open, and lives an open lie that you can't imagine anyone in the movie possibly believes, sans the desperate person he's scheduled to marry.

There's really nothing special at all about this film, and its nonsensical premise isn't lived up to in the execution (no pun intended). Plot holes are everywhere, believability is kept to a minimum, the characters aren't anything special, we never learn the bad guy's true motives, everyone in the movie seems to have a serious association problem (considering they dismiss his picture on America's Most Wanted as nothing to worry about, or that he never allows himself to be photographed, or that he refuses to provide proper identification when asked, etc.

), and really, the bad guy is just not very smart. Yeah, he tries to be charming like a typical psychopath, but he's not exactly calculated in any way whatsoever. His smarts as a killer end at his ability to fake a smile.

Pretty weak film, especially with an antagonist who is an idiot and is wearing a sign on his forehead the whole time saying he's the killer on America's Most Wanted, which is naturally dismissed by every single person except the main protagonist.

Yeah, that's weak.