Stepfather IIIYear: 1992 Director:Guy Magar Written by: Guy Magar, Marc B. Ray Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Wood chipper |
Other movies in this series:
The Stepfather
Stepfather 2
Rish Outfield's reviews
Not nearly as good as the other two. Very predictable (for the most part),
which is sad because one of the things that made the first two Stepfathers
neat was his unpredictability. There were two husband-less mothers in this
one, which was new. And it was clever to hire someone who looked like Terry
O'Quinn to portray a suspicious character, so we'd suspect him, then have the
normal-looking guy be the actual stepfather, but that's pretty much where the
innovations ended. A lot of rehashes of the first film. The new stepfather
had none of the charm and personality that made me love O'Quinn so much, and
was also less frightening when he snapped. As soon as they spoke of the
little boy in the wheelchair, I knew he was going to get up and walk to save
his mother, so when it happened, there was a lot of eye-rolling. It was fun
to see the primitive computer technology used here (though only a few years
old), but that was the extent of the fun.
Very violent, but basically TV movie fare the rest of the time.
The tyranist's thoughts
I never liked these movies as much as Rish, so when I found out that the third and last entry in the series was made for TV,
I knew we had a bad one coming. Any redeeming qualities Jill Schoelen and Terry O'Quinn had granted to the series are completely
gone when you get to this one. Interestingly, I can't picture the actual face of the actor in this one (in my mind he looks
exactly like Terry O'Quinn). There is one plot device that is new and kind of clever, but for the most part, this is a rehash
of the same old story. This time, however, there is almost no threat at all. It is very hard to watch the incredibly drawn out
action without some sort of stimulant.
Total Skulls: 25
Sequel | ||
Sequel setup | ||
Rips off earlier film | ||
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
Future celebrity appears | ||
Former celebrity appears | ||
Bad title | ||
Bad premise | ||
Bad acting | ||
Bad dialogue | ||
Bad execution | ||
MTV Editing | ||
OTS | ||
Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
Wanton sex | ||
Death associated with sex | ||
Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
Characters forget about threat | ||
Secluded location | ||
Power is cut | ||
Phone lines are cut | ||
Someone investigates a strange noise | ||
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
Camera is the killer | ||
Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
Victim locks self in with killer | ||
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
Toilet stall scene | ||
Shower scene | ||
Car stalls or won't start | ||
Cat jumps out | ||
Fake scare | ||
Laughable scare | ||
Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
Dream sequence | ||
No one believes only witness | ||
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
Music detracts from scene | ||
Death in first five minutes | ||
What the hell? | ||
x years ago . . . | ||
Dark and stormy night | ||
Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
Killer wears a mask | ||
Killer is in closet | ||
Killer is in car with victim | ||
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
Unscary villain/monster | ||
Beheading | ||
Blood fountain | ||
Blood hits camera | ||
Poor death effect | ||
Excessive gore | ||
No one dies at all | ||
Virgin survives | ||
Geek/Nerd survives | ||
Little kid lamely survives | ||
Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
Unresolved subplots | ||
"It was all a dream" ending | ||
Unbelievably happy ending | ||
Unbelievably crappy ending |