Nazz86 Worth a watch I'd say, good plot, not stupidly over the top, and pretty realistic.

zombiefan89 "Terry O'Quinn really does elevate some stupid crap." - to loosely quote Brad Jones, the Cinema Snob. The biggest plot holes in the movie stem from how incompetent the police and media are at finding Jerry Blake! They HAVE his picture! All they had to do was run it in the paper! That's sort of how the serial killer John List (this movie was loosely based on) was finally captured! America's Most Wanted broadcasted his story on TV, which had the same effect. With his picture seen by enough people, he had no where to hide. The sub-plot of the Jerry's dead wife's brother hunting him down could have been dropped completely! Despite all of this, I still give the movie an 8 out of 10 for O'Quinn's performance alone. He's that good!

Toronto85 A serial killer who is in love with the idea of a "perfect family" preys on the Maine family in 'The Stepfather'. The film starts with us seeing Terry Quinn's character changing his appearance and leaving his family home after brutally butchering them. We fast forward some time later to him now going by the name of Jerry Blake, he's got a wife named Susan and is the stepfather to our lead character Stephanie. Stephanie can't stand him and suspects there is more to him than meets the eye. She begins investigating into the murder he committed a year prior, and it isn't long before he catches on. Others begin questioning him as well, and his former brother-in-law from the family he killed is on the hunt for him. With the walls closing in, Jerry beings to crack... and begins to kill.'The Stepfather' is a brilliant late eighties thriller! I first came across it years back when TBS used to show a marathon of the Stepfather series on a regular basis. It's a basic story of a madman, but the performances by the actors involved takes it to another level. Terry Quinn is amazing as the psychotic Jerry Blake, just his mannerisms when he's having his meltdowns are spot on. Jill Schoelen, who became a late eighties scream queen, did a terrific job as the lead female character. And Shelley Hack put in a good performance as Stephanie's mom Susan, the woman he gave into the charms of Jerry. There are some death scenes, some pretty brutal, but the intensity comes from watching Jerry Blake crack under the pressure. Not knowing when he'll snap leaves viewers on the edge of their seats, and when he finally does snap towards the end of the film ... things get scary. Highly recommended.8/10

Spikeopath The Stepfather is directed by Joseph Ruben and collectively written by Carolyn Lefcourt, Brian Garfield and Donald E. Westlake. It stars Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, Shelley Hack, Stephen Shellen and Charles Lanyer. Music is by Patrick Moraz and cinematography by John W. Lindley.Why can't they leave me alone? Joseph Ruben's film is firmly ensconced in the land of B horror cultdom, and rightly so. Some horror fans may be disappointed at the lack of brutal killings actually shown on screen, but looking beyond that expectation there beats the heart of a cynical picture. The American Dream shed of its bloody veneer, the film plants an ambiguous serial killer in the normalcy of the family life that he so craves, that is until his vision of Americana family life is not met and his dark half comes to the fore.It's a cunning picture, keeping the killer's back story shaded in grey, and Ruben smartly keeps tension simmering away to keep viewers anxiously waiting for the stepfather to crack. O'Quinn is excellent as damaged dad, intense, measured and charmingly normal when required, and then not over the top when he cracks and rants. Around him he is backed by strong turns from Schoelen, Hack and Lanyer, while Ruben's direction and Lindley's colour photography bring a credible feeling to the plot.A running sub-plot involving Shellen's grieving brother doing detective work feels a bit superfluous at times, while a nude shower scene with Schoelen is totally unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, Schoelen has a lovely body and is a very pretty girl, the actress aged 24 at the time, but she's playing a 16 year old! It just comes off as pointless titillation in a film that didn't need such tricks. Small irritants aside, The Stepfather is intelligent horror and still holding up now in this age of torture and hackville sub-genres. 7.5/10