The People Under the Stairs *** (1991, Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A J Langer, Ving Rhames, Sean Whalen) – Classic Movie Review 6224

The People Under the Stairs is a vigorous old dark house shocker from writer-director Wes Craven, also the iconic innovative horror movie director of The Last House on the Left (1972), The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. He makes sure that it always effective, sometimes intelligent and often scary.

Brandon [Quintin] Adams plays 13-year old Los Angeles ghetto boy Poindexter ‘Fool’ Williams, who breaks into the fortified large suburban house of his landlords, a white, supposedly married couple the Robesons (Everett McGill, Wendy Robie), called Mommy and Daddy, and their daughter Alice (A J Langer), to steal the couple’s gold coin collection.

Fool breaks in with adults Leroy (Ving Rhames) and Spencer (Jeremy Roberts) but soon finds himself in deadly peril on his own. Unfortunately, what Fool does not know is that the family are psychotic crazies keeping people under the stairs. In a dungeon-like basement, he finds strange, pale children locked in a pen, who have turned to cannibalism to survive.

Craven boldly mixes nasty-toned chills with black humour and a socially-aware message (rare in Nineties horror films) and comes up with an unusual chiller. It is kept going through its bumpy passages and longueurs by its intriguing weirdness of tone and subject matter, plus the sheer professionalism of the cast and crew.

Also in the cast are Sean Whalen as Roach, Bill Cobbs as Grandpa Booker, Kelly Jo Minter as Ruby, John Hostetter as Veteran Cop and Conni Marie Brazelton as Mary.

It is shot by Sandi Sissel, produced by Marianne Maddalena and Stuart M Besser, and scored by Don Peake.

It runs 102 minutes and 99 minutes in the cut version.

It was a hit in America. Costing $6 million, it grossed $24 million in the US and a total box office of $31.4 million.

Wes Craven (1939–2015).

Wes Craven died on 30 August 2015, aged 76.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6224

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com