Stepfather
Before he gained a legion of fans starring as the mysterious John Locke on ABC’s Lost, Terry O’Quinn was best known for his powerhouse performance in this independent 1987 horror film (later unwisely remade), playing a serial killer with a habit of marrying into families in a neverending quest for the “perfect family”, only to flip out and murder them when they inevitably let him down before assuming a new identity and moving on to the next small town and desperate widow / divorcee. The film begins with him cleaning up from his last slaughter (which includes a little girl), changing his appearance and sidling his way out of town, arriving somewhere else where he assumes the persona of “Jerry Blake”, and gets a job selling real estate (an ideal gig for a paranoid schizophrenic sociopath) before meeting and marrying a widow (former Charlie’s Angel Shelley Hack) with a rebellious teenage daughter (Jill Schoelen). Indeed, it is Schoelen who is clearly the heroine of the film, seeing something in this man that her mother clearly does not, and her cute sweetness (unique for this actress) carry the viewer on her side as strongly as we fear O’Quinn. Schoelen (who at one time was engaged to Brad Pitt after acting in an 80s slasher film with him) would see her career dissipate in the 90s, but with her chirpy voice and engaging charm, it really is quite a shame, even showing herself off in a nude shower scene late in the film while still maintaining her innocent veneer. Nonetheless, all eyes are still on O’Quinn, who managed to carve out quite a mini-legend for himself with this role, as what the Stepfather character represents is a grotesque parody of traditional conservative family values, getting his yuks from watching 50s TV sitcoms and going ballistic when a gawky teenage boy tries to kiss his stepdaughter goodnight. The amazing thing is that aura of creepiness he projects when spouting his reassuring nuggets of wisdom, enough to make his wife smile but still giving the viewer the chills since we know what he’s capable of, and in some fleeting moments, O’Quinn even manages to evoke some sympathy in that all he wants is that happy ending with family, home, and hearth, and the all too scant references to his own childhood (the character is given no backstory, which adds to the effectiveness of the piece). The film also brings in a would-be hero (Stephen Shellen), the brother of his previous wife, who becomes obsessed with tracking down the psycho, though much of his role draws attention to obvious plot holes (like why would the police just give up so easily trying to find this man barely a year after his previous rampage), and a bit about a newspaper refusing to publish his photo so he can be possibly identified is a spot contrived. The violence is actually pretty reserved for the most part, save for when Schoelen’s psychiatrist approaches O’Quinn under the guise of wanting to buy a house and makes the mistake of asking the psycho a few too many personal questions, and of course the ending, when O’Quinn becomes completely unglued and the wife and daughter have to fight for their lives, whereupon the movie descends a bit into b-movie slasher mode, but overall, this is REQUIRED viewing for all fans of Lost in order to see their beloved John Locke give one of the best and creepiest villain performances of the 80s…
8/10