#317: The Stepfather

Release Date: January 23rd, 1987

Format: Streaming (Tubi)

Written by: Donald E. Westlake

Directed by: Joseph Ruben

3 Stars

The Stepfather has some fun thrills, a light perfume of satire, and a couple great lead performances from Terry O’Quinn and Jill Schoelen. 

What the film doesn’t have is basic logic, both in the characters’ psychologies and law enforcement procedure. 

Oh well, I still think the good outweighs the bad in The Stepfather. 

The story is about Jerry Blank (O’Quinn), a buttoned-up, murderous psychopath who gets his kicks by marrying single women with children, establishing his role as a loving stepfather, and then murdering the whole clan. 

Why? I’m not sure, and I’m not sure writer Donald E. Westlake knows either. 

My best guess is that Westlake is striving for a type of Ted Bundy characterization. Bundy infamously (and ironically) self-identified as a wholesome, family-values Republican, and somewhat successfully masked his true identity for decades, as a vicious killer of women, who also secretly groomed and abused the daughter of a girlfriend that he dated for much of the 1970s.              

Westlake doesn’t really attempt to make sense of his Bundy-light antagonist, though.  He’s instead much more interested in clever gimmicks and dramatic irony, which work quite well in The Stepfather. 

Plus, Westlake gets a big assist from O’Quinn. Even if we don’t understand Jerry Blank, O’Quinn makes him really fun to observe. The clean-cut facade and friendly ‘howdy-neighbor’ smile can’t mask those eyes. O’Quinn lets them shine with malice and contempt.

In his way stands teenager Stephanie Maine (Schoelen), who can’t understand why her widowed mother, Susan (Shelley Hack), can’t see that she’s dating a real creep. Schoelen brings a sadness and spirit to the role that really works.

So even if The Stepfather ends up being a bit shallow, it brings enough genre fun to make it well worth a watch.