The Stepfather *** (2009, Penn Badgley, Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Amber Heard) – Classic Movie Review 4,416

The 2009 American psychological horror film remake The Stepfather stars Dylan Walsh as a scary schizo serial killer who sets up home with fatherless families, and then slaughters the lot.

Director Nelson McCormick’s 2009 American psychological horror film The Stepfather remakes the 1987 cult film The Stepfather, and stars Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Penn Badgley, Amber Heard and Jon Tenney. It is loosely based on mass murderer John List.

Giving an acting class in oozing smarmy charm while imploding with pent-up underlying rage, an ideally cast Dylan Walsh pitches it just right as a scary schizo serial killer who sets up home with fatherless families, then slaughters the lot when his authority is challenged.

Penn Badgley (from Gossip Girl) is convincing and handsome enough as the rebellious young family member Michael Harding, who returns home from military school to find his mother (Sela Ward) is living with the creepy David Harris (Walsh), now her new boyfriend, about whom he gets increasingly suspicious.

Director Nelson McCormick’s 2009 chiller remake of the original 1987 The Stepfather is contrived – very contrived. But it is pretty well done, and, after loads of mounting tension and several mounting corpses, it bursts into satisfyingly frenzied action at the end. It is no award winner, but it grips, entertains and basically does the job.

J S Cardone provides the screenplay, adapting Donald E. Westlake’s earlier screenplay for the 1987 film The Stepfather.

Amber Heard also stars as Kelly Porter. Heard was married to Johnny Depp from 2015 to 2016.

It did quite well: $11 million cost, $29 million US gross.

The cast

The cast are Dylan Walsh as Grady Edwards / David Harris / Chris Ames, Sela Ward as Susan Harding, Penn Badgley as Michael Harding, Amber Heard as Kelly Porter, Sherry Stringfield as Leah, Paige Turco as Jackie Kerns, Jon Tenney as Jay, Nancy Linehan Charles as Mrs Cutter, Marcuis Harris as Detective Shay, Braeden Lemasters as Sean Harding, Deirdre Lovejoy as Detective Tylar, and Skyler Samuels as Beth Harding.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,416

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