I love this movie because it’s honestly pretty predictable, but damn if isn’t a great time anyway. A white man wanting to magically live the Great White Straight Dream without actually having to obtain it isn’t exactly the craziest setup in the world. I think that maybe I didn’t fully embrace this series as a kid because honestly my stepfather was an eye rolly waste of space sort of nightmare who wanted to his own Great White Dream to simply materialize in the form of my mother’s money and frankly, I didn’t need a movie about one to remind me of how much of a creep mine actually was.

Terry O’Quinn and Jill Schoelen battling it out in the attic is a fine moment in cinematic history. I really wanted that sled that goes flying across the floor to result in a stepdad decapitation (a stepdadpitation) but I suppose we can’t always have everything now can we.

“Wait a minute. Who am I here?”

Ok, I’ll start by saying that I might have a huge crush on stepdaddy Terry O’Quinn when he’s wearing plaid & a full-on girl crush on the cute as fuck Jill Schoelen!
I really love this character-driven psycho thriller, mainly because our stepfather, John Locke I mean Jerry Blake, goes bonkers more than a couple times, O’Quinn plays the perfect psycho and his central performance is creepy, believable and completely unnerving!

The film is pretty short but the build up is oh so satisfying!! the perfect Father’s Day movie? i think so!
Just have to watch the sequels now. 

“He’s not my father!”

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Upon revisiting The Stepfather (in preparation for watching the sequels for the first time), I can't help but feel as though this movie is a bit over-rated.

Sure I love Jill Schoelen (even though I find it incredibly unbelievable to think she would have ever been expelled from a school for fighting and being a troublemaker...) and I think that Terry O'Quinn is fantastic as the on-edge, step father Jerry Blake, I just think there could have been more cruelty, because I'm a depraved lunatic.

The main reason I'm writing anything here is because of my excitement regarding THIS song by Stunt Rock, there are tons of audio clips from films and when the opening lines from the song were spoken in The Stepfather, I had a mini-freakout.

Now, onto the sequel with Meg Foster and JONATHAN BRANDIS.

I screamed when Terry O'Quinn jumped though a bedroom mirror like Freddy. A really triggering movie if you've ever had an asshole dad or if baby boomers forced you to adhere to their warped and naive vision of the American Dream. A real indictment of Reaganism masked as crackerjack crime fiction, The Stepfather whipped true frightened chill bumps from my suburban bummer upbrought behind for the first time in a long theatrical looksee.

So I got to say go Terry O'Quinn! You played the perfect part for both films.

This is one of a very few movies where the Westlake on the screen matches Westlake on the page. Brutal yet playful, malevolent yet cheesy, engrossing, and deeply chilling. Joseph A. Ruben made a lot of mediocre movies but he really does give this movie an integral plainness that he occasionally, violently jostles out of place on purpose - I can see him attempting something similar in The Good Son, his only other noteworthy movie. I come back to this pretty often and there's still meat on the bone. If I were to make a list of the 100 greatest American horror movies, the list would likely change every single year, but just like Texas Chainsaw Massacre would always be #1, I think this would always be #100.

I love this movie!!! Again, probably the most underrated and Underappreciated horror movie OF ALL TIME!!! 

I still get chills thinking about the movie and just love the characters and enjoy the story and the horror is soo good. I have nothing else to add, my previous review says it all

As strange as it may sound, a very cozy horror film, despite the small budget, everything works as it should, the tension, and the beauty of the frame, and an allusion to the unattainable American dream. Good movie.

I thought the actor who played the stepfather was the same guy who played Franco the dance instructor from Breakin’.   I was wrong. But I was right to watch The Stepfather again.

One of the best, most suspenseful slashers in the genre. O'Quinns performance was really superb and believable as the Psycho killer posing as a family man. Whole movie had a creepy vibe.

when he smacked her with the phone i screamed

would be a hellava good movie, but the directors made the 16 YEAR OLD character show her taa-taa’s

a pretty standard, cheesy, half-slasher from the 80s, but the 15 second "who am i here?" scene is so expertly acted and genuinely chilling!! i wish it was not Literally On the Poster

Watched this out of a random and it was a good pick. It's got 80s synth, laughs, some mild Nic Cage rage from murderous Dad. It was a pleasant surprise.

Standard 80's slasher elevated by Terry O'Quinn really sinking his teeth into the titular role.

This movie is smart enough to not rip off the PSYCHO shower scene—bravo.

To my shame I've seen the sequel and the remake but somehow had never seen the original. Glad I have now as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

They call this horror I call this dating in your 40s (am I right, ladies?)

The Stepfather was such a pleasant surprise. Most of content that has fallen into the ad-sponsored archives of TubiTV has done so because no one wants it. It was the poster of The Stepfather that grabbed me. I read the tagline a few times, trying to make sense of it. "Who am I here?" I assumed this was alluding to a midlife crisis that would no doubt result in some gruesome patriarchal violence. But still it seemed a strange way of putting it. That's all it took to click. I found the film thoroughly entertaining, due mostly to the performances of its leads, and the moment that cryptic line that got me in is uttered is a truly great one. A wholly satisfying chance 80s thriller discovery.

bpd hoe is right once again