Friday, September 16, 2016

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 352


The Date: September 16

The Movie: The Stepfather (1987)

What Is It?: Smack dab in the decade dominated by disposable slasher movies came a nut-with-a-knife flick that reached back to the psychologically complex films that inspired the genre. The Stepfather has far more in common with Psycho, Peeping Tom, and Repulsion, than Friday the 13th or Prom Night, and its quality has earned it a cult following that really deserves to be broader. Based on a true story, The Stepfather stars Terry O’Quinn as a deranged chameleon constantly on the look out for a new family to fulfill his perfect-Daddy fantasies. At its core, The Stepfather is a satire of conservative American ideals of the flag-waving, sweater-vest-and-pearls wearing nuclear family (the script was written during the Nixon era and filmed during Reagan’s reign), but it’s never jokey or goofy.

Why Today?: Today is Step Family Day.
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