A Stepfather of dubious interest

STEPFATHER III (1992)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The worse thing than a horror movie sequel is a horror movie sequel made for TV. "Stepfather 3: Father's Day" is the latest example of turgid horror that aims for the gore thus eradicating any of the thrills and suspense that count. It reduces everything that the original "Stepfather" had to the status of a below-average slasher film.

Though I thought he was finally dead in "Part 2," Mr. Bad Daddy is back again with a new face thanks to plastic surgery, which means that Terry O'Quinn does not return for a third go-round (he was initially offered the chance to write and direct it but turned it down, alluding to the fact that he did not want to be typecast as a psycho). Instead we have Robert Wightman ("Living in Oblivion") who is the poorest replacement imaginable - how about a more fitting replacement like character actor Kurtwood Smith (remember the strict dad in "Dead Poet's Society?") Nevertheless, Bad Daddy travels to a new town and meets and falls in love with not one but two single mothers (one of them fetchingly played by Priscilla Barnes). There is also the terminally whining new kid (a computer whiz in a wheelchair) who suspects that something is askew about his new stepdad. So we have the standard body count, stepdad in a bunny suit (!), the usual "oh, they are disappointing me" looks and grimaces, and an unbelievable opening sequence set in a sullied underground plastic surgery room where stepdad refuses to be anesthetized while being operated on! Who is this guy, a gluttonous Rambo for punishment?

The movie is too silly, too overbaked and too unbelievable. Stepdad is more of a loose cannon this time, killing anyone in his path including the surgeon whom Stepdad paid for a new face! Falling for two women would seem antithetical to the O'Quinn psychopath and his core family values. And a scene that must be seen to be believed has Stepdaddy trying to get the wheelchair-bound kid to get out of his wheelchair ("Come on, you can do it") - it is a moment of shocking stupidity. Also, devotees of "Stepfather II" will notice that Stepdad was put back in the very same Puget Sound mental hospital he was in at the beginning of "II" and escapes again in "III" (mentioned only in a convenient TV broadcast)...couldn't the writers have thought of some other solution that didn't seem so recycled?

The first film was a classic suburban shocker - a movie I would compare without hesitation to Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt." The second film was mostly a black comedy. This film simply trashes whatever redeeming value the first two films had. Mr. Terry O'Quinn and Mrs. Jill Schoelen, you are both missed!