Rambling about THE STEPFATHER
Sep. 20th, 2008 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerI've discovered a new cliche, for which I need help coming up with a name. It's that subplot character in thrillers, the one for whom a whole major chunk of the story is dedicated to tracking down the killer (and thereby saving the terrorized victim), until the character finally encounters the villain... and is promptly dispatched.
He's a potential deus ex machina/white knight character coming in to save the day, but then is suddenly killed off, thereby leaving it in the hands of the victim to fight back. It makes perfect sense from a storytelling perspective, but it can feel mightily anticlimactic after a good 1/4 of the story has been dedicated to this character's building subplot.
I think Martin Balsam in PSYCHO set the foundation, then it was most famously depicted by Scatman Crothers in THE SHINING. Then there's Richard Farnsworth in MISERY, who was virtually the exact same character as depicted by Blu Mankuma in INTENSITY.
But I didn't realize what a cliche this was until I saw THE STEPFATHER.
And by the way, let me just say, holy shit what a great movie. I mean, it's not a great movie on its own, the plot and storyline is like a stabbier version of some ill-fated made-for-Lifetime/Court-TV joint venture.
But then there's Terry O'Quinn. Yes, John Locke himself.
I'd heard about O'Quinn's supposedly-legendary movie-elevating performance, but thanks to someone uploading the entire film on YouTube, I finally saw it for myself.
Fans of LOST and thrillers, if you have an hour and a half to put aside, I wholeheartedly urge you to check this out.
THE STEPFATHER (1987), starring Terry O'Quinn, in nine parts:
The film's cleverness stems from immediately showing us what a monstrous psycho this guy is right from the outset, so the tension doesn't come from "is there something wrong with this guy?" build-up. Even then, the movie could just have been Terry O'Quinn being menacing and creepy, which is what many an actor would have done, and that'd have been passable enough. But between the story and O'Quinn's performance, "Jerry" slowly unfolds into a fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional character.
The pivotal scene of the whole film, for me, is also the least "horrific" one. Between bouts of suspenseful crazy, a pissed-off Stepfather walks down the street, ruminating on how his current family is "disappointing" him like all the rest, when this happens:
I'm not sure how well it holds up out of context, but it's that classic trick of great cinematic storytelling: saying everything without saying anything. If someone ever does a list of great performances that single-handedly elevate not-great movies*, Terry O'Quinn deserves prominent inclusion. I am not exaggerating when I say that his performance here is on par with Anthony Perkins in PSYCHO.**
Y'know, it seems that there are some people who don't like to see villains be humanized. I hear it a lot from certain right-wingers, the ones who say that America needs to fight "evildoers," and how liberals can't accept the fact that truly evil people exist. Similarly, there are people who don't want to ever see Hitler depicted as anything other than a raving supervillain. Hell, there are people who hated it when DC gave the Joker a sympathetic origin. One person remarked, "I don't wanna feel bad for the Joker when he's getting beaten up by Batman." I can't speak for the real world, but at least for storytelling, I think these people miss the point. Or then again, maybe they get it, they just don't want to get it.
It's safer and comforting to just write off the monsters and just that, monsters, inhuman, not like us at all. By making our monsters human, they become even more disturbing, as Terry O'Quinn's performance proved so well. Particularly in the scene where he encounters the cliched character. The tone of recognition when he sees the character is pitch-perfect for the folksy mask that Jerry has so carefully cultivated. In any other hands, it'd be campy. In his, it's chilling because of how genuinely friendly it seems.
Erm, sorry to spoil that tidbit. You should still watch THE STEPFATHER anyway. You may never look at John Locke the same way again.
*See also: Daniel Day-Lewis in GANGS OF NEW YORK, Johnny Depp in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, and John C. McGinley in INTENSITY. Any other suggestions?
**And PSYCHO II, a wonderful and deeply-underappreciated film. Quentin Tarantino vastly prefers PSYCHO II to the original. He's wrong, but not by much.
He's a potential deus ex machina/white knight character coming in to save the day, but then is suddenly killed off, thereby leaving it in the hands of the victim to fight back. It makes perfect sense from a storytelling perspective, but it can feel mightily anticlimactic after a good 1/4 of the story has been dedicated to this character's building subplot.
I think Martin Balsam in PSYCHO set the foundation, then it was most famously depicted by Scatman Crothers in THE SHINING. Then there's Richard Farnsworth in MISERY, who was virtually the exact same character as depicted by Blu Mankuma in INTENSITY.
But I didn't realize what a cliche this was until I saw THE STEPFATHER.
And by the way, let me just say, holy shit what a great movie. I mean, it's not a great movie on its own, the plot and storyline is like a stabbier version of some ill-fated made-for-Lifetime/Court-TV joint venture.
But then there's Terry O'Quinn. Yes, John Locke himself.
I'd heard about O'Quinn's supposedly-legendary movie-elevating performance, but thanks to someone uploading the entire film on YouTube, I finally saw it for myself.
Fans of LOST and thrillers, if you have an hour and a half to put aside, I wholeheartedly urge you to check this out.
THE STEPFATHER (1987), starring Terry O'Quinn, in nine parts:
The film's cleverness stems from immediately showing us what a monstrous psycho this guy is right from the outset, so the tension doesn't come from "is there something wrong with this guy?" build-up. Even then, the movie could just have been Terry O'Quinn being menacing and creepy, which is what many an actor would have done, and that'd have been passable enough. But between the story and O'Quinn's performance, "Jerry" slowly unfolds into a fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional character.
The pivotal scene of the whole film, for me, is also the least "horrific" one. Between bouts of suspenseful crazy, a pissed-off Stepfather walks down the street, ruminating on how his current family is "disappointing" him like all the rest, when this happens:
I'm not sure how well it holds up out of context, but it's that classic trick of great cinematic storytelling: saying everything without saying anything. If someone ever does a list of great performances that single-handedly elevate not-great movies*, Terry O'Quinn deserves prominent inclusion. I am not exaggerating when I say that his performance here is on par with Anthony Perkins in PSYCHO.**
Y'know, it seems that there are some people who don't like to see villains be humanized. I hear it a lot from certain right-wingers, the ones who say that America needs to fight "evildoers," and how liberals can't accept the fact that truly evil people exist. Similarly, there are people who don't want to ever see Hitler depicted as anything other than a raving supervillain. Hell, there are people who hated it when DC gave the Joker a sympathetic origin. One person remarked, "I don't wanna feel bad for the Joker when he's getting beaten up by Batman." I can't speak for the real world, but at least for storytelling, I think these people miss the point. Or then again, maybe they get it, they just don't want to get it.
It's safer and comforting to just write off the monsters and just that, monsters, inhuman, not like us at all. By making our monsters human, they become even more disturbing, as Terry O'Quinn's performance proved so well. Particularly in the scene where he encounters the cliched character. The tone of recognition when he sees the character is pitch-perfect for the folksy mask that Jerry has so carefully cultivated. In any other hands, it'd be campy. In his, it's chilling because of how genuinely friendly it seems.
Erm, sorry to spoil that tidbit. You should still watch THE STEPFATHER anyway. You may never look at John Locke the same way again.
*See also: Daniel Day-Lewis in GANGS OF NEW YORK, Johnny Depp in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, and John C. McGinley in INTENSITY. Any other suggestions?
**And PSYCHO II, a wonderful and deeply-underappreciated film. Quentin Tarantino vastly prefers PSYCHO II to the original. He's wrong, but not by much.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-09-20 08:59 pm (UTC)"Ach! I'm bad at this."
no subject
Date: 2008-09-20 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-20 09:08 pm (UTC)And Terry O'Quinn? I love that man.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-20 09:25 pm (UTC)I love "That Guy" actors, and he's one of the best. I totally forgot he played, like, fifteen people on THE X-FILES/MILLENNIUM, and most of them had pencil mustaches!
Have you seen THE STEPFATHER?
no subject
Date: 2008-09-20 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-20 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-20 10:19 pm (UTC)I also highly recommend The Stepfather to folks who like suspense films.
Oh, hell yeah! Haven't seen that in years...
Date: 2008-09-21 06:25 am (UTC)Quite impressed. The second one isn't horrible, either, if I remember correctly... I think I saw it first an the went back to find the first one.
Haven't seen either in a decade or so.
But definitely a fine performance by O'Quinn and without question one that elevated what could have been a downright bad film to something well above mediocre.
And as far as humanizing villains goes, I'm all for it. I'm even more keen on when monsters are more humane than the humans in the films, though. Like Nightbreed.
Re: Oh, hell yeah! Haven't seen that in years...
Date: 2008-09-21 06:46 am (UTC)At the risk of the many hazards inherent within, that's a character I'd really like to see explored a bit more. Yet that might be the worst thing to happen to him; maybe all there should be is what there was in the first film.
The character has just... he's stayed with me all day, man. I need to watch this film again, to revisit this deeply fucked-up character. I dunno, I couldn't help but feel for him, as utterly monstrous as he was. I wonder if anyone else was moved, in a way (a disturbed way counts), by his final words?
Man, I have got to see NIGHTBREED.
Father, look in my eyes...
Date: 2008-09-21 12:31 pm (UTC)Is it the MOON KNIGHT #35 (X-Men crossover; actually one of the best issues of the whole first series) icon?
No. It's the fact that you've seen INTENSITY, which is probably the best Dean "I hates dem wimminz" Koontz adaptation imaginable and stars John C. McGinley, my personal savior (well, one of them; when you're this doomed, it takes dozens of them. It's just math, John.)
Terry O'Quinn has, like McGinley, been unfairly held under the radar until LOST...and even then, I seem to always hear more about the other leads, like Junkie Hobbit and Abdominizer.
Props to you, sir, for recognizing such a talent AND analyzing the semihero (that's the best name I have for them, although I have always maintained that Scatman Crothers was capable of much more.)
there's something 'bout this thing that scares me
Date: 2008-09-21 03:59 pm (UTC)And oh yes, INTENSITY. It's not on DVD, and after hearing my best bud
Can you understand why I now so desperately want McGinley to team up with Warren Ellis for NORMAN OSBORN'S SING-ALONG BLOG?
Hahaha, Abdominizer. I presume you mean Sawyer? Funny, I actually hear a great deal about Locke more than either of them. If anything, I hear more raving about Matthew Fox, but perhaps all that comes solely from Kali. My girlfriend actually got fed up with the Locke browncoating, so the appreciation is out there. But now, man, I'm all about the Stepfather.
I agree, poor Scatman should have accomplished more. I bet he was capable. Dude had the Shinnin'!
Re: there's something 'bout this thing that dares me
Date: 2008-09-21 04:10 pm (UTC)-Yep, Sawyer.
-I loved the soundtracks for BAND OF THE HAND and MANHUNTER, and still do. I think I still have the cassettes somewhere. It's how I fell in love with Shriekback, I think. Another band you like, even if I don't know if you know them...
-McGinley is so awesome. I can't hear anyone but him or Ben Kingsley being Norman, depending on which version you're casting. Old-school Ross Andru? Kingsley. Ellis? MCGINLEY all the way.
Re: there's something 'bout this thing that dares me
Date: 2008-09-21 04:18 pm (UTC)Norman: You are Spider-Man!
Peter: No!
Norman: Yes!
Peter: No!
Norman: Yes!
Peter: No!
Norman: Fat cunt!
Gwen: Hey!
Norman: Not you, honeybuns.
Peter: No, No, No!
Norman: Yes, Yes, Yes!
Re: there's something 'bout this thing that dares me
Date: 2008-09-21 04:42 pm (UTC)DO YOU SEE?