Stepfather 3 DVD

After carrying the first two films to wide critical recognition, Terry O'Quinn was virtually inseparable from the stepfather character. When talks came up about following up the successful second with a third, all eyes turned to O'Quinn. How could you make a Stepfather without him? ITC reportedly offered him a ton of money and even the opportunity to write or direct the sequel, but ultimately talks fell through. With that, theatrical hopes became a cable reality, as Stepfather 3 debuted on HBO before finding its way to video shelves. It may not have had O'Quinn, but it had a great cover, with daddy lit from below holding a bloody shovel. But what was with that tagline? "Daddy's been in the garden...again!" Again? Did he take horticulture classes between sequels or what? The closest he came to plant life was walking through autumn leaves in the first. No matter, here's the third and closing entry in the trilogy. Does it live up to the high standards of the first two, or should that family declare this one orphan?

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STEPFATHER 2 DVD

I was never old enough to watch The Stepfather movies when they came out, but I definitely remembered the covers. Now the first film had a different box art than the theatrical poster, and despite the overall mediocrity of both, it sold incredibly well on video. The third film had a much more striking image, with the bloody shovel concealing a bottom lit face. For an impressionable kid, though, nothing beat the cover for the second film. I didn’t care about the first film – I wanted to see that second! Who cares if the little girl and the dog aren’t even in the movie? Who cares if Terry O’Quinn doesn’t really even brandish a knife throughout? It was that image of the unstoppable father with the T-1000 eyes, and then that bloody 2 (a trend for sequels that has sadly fallen out of favor) that just created such an impression. By the poster alone, Stepfather 2: Make Room for Daddy should be awesome. Synapse seems to think so, re-releasing Miramax’s initial 2003 special edition with even more bonus features. Should we make room for daddy?

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THE STEPFATHER DVD

“Who Am I Here?” The posters and trailers famously heralded for the psychopath-family-swapper The Stepfather. Or not so famously, I guess, considering the film made a paltry 2.4 million at the box office. Yet, The Stepfather was one of the few horror films actually saved by the critics, garnering plenty of top ten mentions and even a surprise nomination by the Independent Spirit Awards for Terry O’Quinn as lead actor. That buzz helped drive a very successful run on video – so successful that a follow-up hit theatres two years later, with O’Quinn again as the lead. That one impressively made less than the sum of the paltry original, but still, a third O’Quinn-less sequel followed in 1992. Although box office performance certainly doesn’t indicate it, there’s a public fascination with the everyman gone berserk. The first film was based on the true story of John List, who eventually became an early America’s Most Wanted staple. It’s the kind of thing you watch on television questioning how someone so normal could ever do something so heinous. At a time when slashers were going supernatural and becoming increasingly unrealistic, The Stepfather again cut through the white picket fences that Halloween had ten years prior to again make suburban America unlikely targets for terror. All this filmed in Canada, no less.

Now, 22 years after its original release, The Stepfather is again being revived by the remake train. It’s tough to imagine much of a following existing for this modest original since it’s largely remained unreleased for over a decade. Buena Vista released the second film on DVD, but surprisingly the first that started it all hadn’t even made the leap to digital as of 2009. VHS has been the only way to see The Stepfather (and the third film, for those counting) but thankfully just in time for the remake Shout! Factory is presenting this little sleeper with a new anamorphic transfer and some cozy extras. Is it worth bringing home, or is this fodder for foster families?

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CHILDREN OF THE CORN Blu-ray

Walking the VHS rows as a kid, I’d always fascinate myself with all the chapters and sequels of all those venerable horror franchises. I’d daydream and hyperbolize just how good the first film in each franchise must be to spawn so many sequels. Everyone knew about the quality of the originals when it came to Psycho or Halloween or A Nightmare on Elm Street, but for every series spawned on a classic, there were a dozen or so that weren’t. The Amityville Horror, Ghoulies, Witchcraft, Pumpkinhead, and even Saw today, each have spawned never ending franchises on by most accounts terrible first films. Unlike drama or action, it’s not the strength of the cast or crew that makes these franchises last, but instead the mere strength of the concept. A possessed house, people forced to kill themselves, a punishing farm demon, goblins that come out of the toilet. Well, okay, not even the concept works in Ghoulies’ favor, but part of what makes horror so intriguing is the way franchises just never seem to die.

Not only does it happen with quite regularity that horror franchises reach the five film landmark, but it’s often the case that many of those sequels are completely different than the others. It’s always the roll of the dice with franchise horror. Sometimes you get sequels that have nothing to do with their originals – Troll 2, Halloween 3, Zombi 2, and sometimes you get sequels that by all accounts eclipse the originals – Ghoulies II, It Lives Again, Dawn of the Dead. Becoming a horror aficionado means taking the pledge to sift through the endless sequels in search of those diamond in the rough follow ups. It’s a hell of a sift for those brave enough to visit the Children of the Corn – seven films later and it’s still thriving on the direct-to-video market. What about the one that started it all? Anchor Bay’s released it twice before on DVD and now it hits the disc a third time on Blu-ray. The 20th Anniversary DiviMax has been upgraded with new features on Blu-ray for the 25th but is this franchise father closer to Amityville than it is Halloween? Time to start the harvest and find out!

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