The Stepfather (2009)

★ 5.8 1h 41m 952 votes IMDb

Michael Harding returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend, David. As the two men get to know each other, Michael becomes more and more suspicious of the man who is always there with a helpful hand. Is he really the man of her dreams or could David be hiding a dark side?

The Stepfather

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Cast

Dylan Walsh
Dylan Walsh as David Harris Age 62 · Los Angeles, California, USA Dylan Walsh (born Charles Hunter Walsh, November 17, 1963) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Dr. Sean McNamara on the FX television series Nip/Tuck, Al Burns on Unforgettable, an...
Sela Ward
Sela Ward as Susan Harding Age 69 · Meridian, Mississippi, USA Sela Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American movie and television actress, producer, author, and former model. She moved to California to pursue acting and landed her first film role in the 1983 Bur...
Penn Badgley
Penn Badgley as Michael Harding Age 39 · Baltimore, Maryland, USA Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor. He is primarily known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series Gossip Girl (2007–2012) and Joe Goldberg in the Netfli...
Amber Heard
Amber Heard as Kelly Porter Age 39 · Austin, Texas, USA Amber Laura Heard (born April 22, 1986) is an American film and television actress. After a series of small roles in film and television, Heard had her first starring role in the horror film All the B...
Sherry Stringfield
Sherry Stringfield as Leah Age 58 · Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sherry Lea Stringfield (born June 24, 1967) is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Dr. Susan Lewis on the medical television drama ER,...
Paige Turco
Paige Turco as Jackie Kerns Age 60 · Springfield, Massachusetts, USA Jean Paige Turco (born May 17, 1965) is an American actress. She is known for playing April O'Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III and f...

Audience Reviews

Wuchak 7/10 Oct 17, 2019
***What if your stepfather is a psycho?***

After an amiable man (Dylan Walsh) slays his family he starts a new one under a different identity in Portland, Oregon, but his discerning stepson (Penn Badgley) picks up on his dark side. Sela Ward plays the psycho’s new fiancé while Amber Heard is on hand as the stepson’s girlfriend.

"The Stepfather" (2009) is a solid crime drama/thriller with a bit o' slasher horror, a combination of the original film (1987) and its sequel (1989). All of the Stepfather flicks are loosely based on mass murderer John List. They contain elements of movies like "Psycho" (1960/1998) mixed with coming-of-age drama, like “Fright Night” (1985) and “Disturbia” (2007).

Walsh effectively portrays the delusional titular character while Badgley is competent as the teen protagonist. Meanwhile the director takes every opportunity to show Heard in a bikini or underwear, but she’s way too thin to stir much interest despite her obvious attractiveness. She’s more appealing after she acquired some curves, e.g. as Mera in “Aquaman” (2018).

At the end of the day this is an updated, slightly more compelling version of the first film and its sequel. There are just enough changes to make it worthwhile if you’re familiar with the prior flicks. On the downside, it’s a little predictable, but what else is new?

The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles & Santa Clarita, California (with studio work done in Culver City).

GRADE: B+

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