I guess when all is said and done, "The Stepfather" is really just a slasher movie. But . . . it's actually a petty damn good one. A great deal of that is the script and taut direction, but also the pacific northwest setting lends some nice eerie atmosphere. Although there's not a whole lot to say about the casting (they just function), it's Terry O'Quinn who claims this movie for his own, and he's really something to see here; a deranged realtor, moving from one fatherless family to the next until his dreams of the ideal Cleaver household are fulfilled (great satire on family values in Reagan's America). But O'Quinn shifts from calm to madness with the flick of a switch and he puts on a how-to on dominating a movie. Its a defined character with just enough hint of backstory to be real (not to mention psychotic). More importantly, he's unforgettable.7/10

What makes "The Stepfather" stand out is despite the absence of paranoia (the title character is revealed to be a killer in the opening few minutes), it remains quite effective with the plot line of the daughter trying to prove he is, and because he knows she knows, he attempts to conceal the truth.Interestingly, the death of another character is quite sad, whereas similar films only have deaths for shock value.The film also provides a subplot involving a relative of Jerry's previous family hunting him, although it raises the question of where relatives are I suppose, although that didn't detract from the movie.

The Stepfather starts as a man named Henry Morrison (Terry O'Quinn) leaves his home for the last time, a home in which his wife & children lie dead after he had killed them earlier. After travelling to a new town he now calls himself Jerry Blake & has found a new job as a real estate agent, Jerry has also found himself a new family. Jerry has married widow Susan Maine (Shelley Hack) but is having problems with her daughter Stephanie (Jill Schoelen) who resents Jerry & even has an intense dislike of him. After reading about the murdered family in a nearby town Stephanie becomes suspicious, especially after witnessing Jerry lose his temper on several occasions & decides to investigate further. Jerry becomes aware of Stephanie's suspicions & starts to realise that his 'perfect' family is falling apart, eventually Jerry decides he has to start again fresh & that he has to dispose of his current disappointing family...This British & American co-production was directed by Joseph Ruben & seems to be considered a bit of a classic in some circles, I must admit that I have no idea why & thought The Stepfather was a throughly average film. It's quite hard to define The Stepfather within the confines of one genre, I was expecting a slasher style horror film but The Stepfather is probably more a psycho thriller in the vein of Fatal Attraction (1987) which was released the same year. Like it's big budget Hollywood blockbuster The Stepfather hinges on family values & just how important they are to us, in the case of Jerry Blake he will literally kill for the perfect family & the idyllic existence that we are all brought up to aspire to, while Fatal Attraction places emphasis on it's family life with Michael Douglas doing all he can to salvage it & that it should be cherished & respected The Stepfather goes in the other direction & weaves it's story around the idea that family values are outdated & the perfect family simply does not exist & trying to attain it will only end in tears & misery. While the two films take opposite opinions I think the truth lies somewhere between the two, there's nothing wrong with traditional family life but at the same time it's near impossible for things to be completely perfect. At just over 80 minutes long The Stepfather moves along at a fairly sedate pace, while it's not boring it's hardly exciting either. The character's are alright if a little dumb at times & there's a real lack of slasher conventions until the final ten minutes in which we get a knife wielding maniac, a gratuitous shower scene & a final girl who defeats the bad guy after a chase. The Stepfather is competently written, plotted & it's alright to watch but I don't really understand the great reputation it has, I thought it was strictly average & I wouldn't want to see it again any time soon.The Stepfather looks alright, it has no great visual style but it's well made I suppose. Those looking for gore & novelty killings should stick with the likes of The Nightmare on Elm Street & Friday the 13th franchises & there's very little here. A guy is beaten with a plank of wood, a couple of dead bodies are seen, someone is shot & stabbed in the arm & that's about it. The script was apparently based loosely on the case of John List who killed in family in 1971 & remained on the run until 1989.Supposedly filmed in 40 days in Washington & in British Columbia in Canada on what must have been a fairly low budget The Stepfather has good production values. The acting is alright, I keep reading how great Terry O'Quinn is in the role but I was less impressed, sure he's fine but I didn't enjoyed his performance particularly.The Stepfather is a film with a great reputation & strong following but I must admit to being somewhat baffled by what people see in it, sure it's not terrible but I didn't think it was anything great either. Followed by Stepfather II (1989), Stepfather III (1992) & a more recent Hollywood remake The Stepfather (2009).

Terry O'Quinn is brilliant as Jerry Blake, a charming Ted Bundy type who is able to convince women that he is the perfect family man. He is an easy going real estate agent has everyone believing that he is the ideal husband and father. He is reality more like John List, the killer in New Jersey who slaughtered his wife and children because he could not control them.Blake is exactly that kind of guy, a complete control freak, able to fool most of those around him. The only person suspicious of Jerry's motives is his step daughter, Stephanie. She investigates his past and as soon despises that he may be a killer who has changed his identity before marrying her mother, bad things begin to happen to people close to them.O'Quinn is diabolical as the smiling dad of the year in "The Stepfather" and the tension is unrelenting to the end.