The Stepfather steps out again

Remakes are not always a bad thing because if there is one thing the horror genre has show viewers throughout the years it is possible to take an excellent horror film and turn it into something that is an even larger cult classic.

For example, My Bloody valentine, The Hills Have Eyes, and Dawn of the Dead all excelled in their remade fashions.  However, the horror genre has also proved that if a horror film was silly the first time around, most likely the remake will be worse and the latest casualty to join this list is The Stepfather which is pretty much entirely devoid of any true thrill factor by the time Nelson McCormick finished his remake.

The original Stepfather came out in the eighties starring Terry O’Quinn who made it a cult classic of the time, but somehow Dylan Nash was unable to capture the essence of the role and despite his brilliance on Nip/Tuck he really fell short in The Stepfather circa 2000s.  This is the first sign of danger because Nash was the only thing going for the cast as Amber Heard and Penn Badgely in the roles of Michael and Kelly his girlfriend fell even flatter.

The plot is pretty simple as it revolves around troubled teen Michael home from military school who has just found out that his mother is engaged to David who has some dark secrets behind him.  Tagging along with Michael in his quest to uncover some dirt is his girlfriend Kelly who is pretty on the eyes but adds just about nothing to the plot.  In fact, the thrilling scene from the trailer featuring a buzz saw almost hacking her apart was not even in the final cut reducing the amount of thrills to pretty much zero.

In fact, there is no blood or gore featured in the entire film and the best seen was really Heard in her bikini (at least for the guys).    In terms of thrill, there was not much suspense and it was obvious that the script was written for kids that might recognize the actors and actresses and not for adults who really wanted to capture some of the original suspense of the eighties.  Adding in some very poor dialogue that leaves you wanting to tear your ears out and you have a film that is a complete waste of time and money.

It is obvious that Nelson McCormick is more experienced with television shows than movies, and after watching The Stepfather its even more obvious that this should have been a made for television movie airing on the Lifetime channel for how many thrills were actually packed into it.  Now that might have been an audience that appreciate the poor screenwriting of JS Cardone because anyone that is a horror film is going to get bored after just a few minutes of viewing the very mediocre stab at a horror film remake.