The People Under the Stairs has
the right mix of camp, weirdness and suspense to be a worthy addition
to your horror collection.
Written
by The Horror Czar (BHM Editor Don
Sumner) January 16, 2006
Release: 1991 Written and Directed by: Wes Craven
Starring:
Brandon Adams as Fool Everett McGill as Man; Dad Wendy Robie as Woman; Mom A.J. Langer as Alice
Wes Craven has given the world lasting horror classics (A
Nightmare on
Elm Street), forgettable attempts at creating a
horror franchise
(Shocker
– see the end of this review) and everything in
between. The People Under the Stairs qualifies as
“in between”.
The story surrounds a young boy and his poverty-stricken family, living
in low-cost housing and struggling to make ends meet. The
boy’s older sister has a love of tarot cards and one
particular card consistently comes up while doing readings for her
brother, The Fool. So, the boy’s nickname is
“Fool”…and he doesn’t complain
about that at all. Okay, I buy that…
Life is bad for Fool. His mother is deathly ill with no money to seek
medical attention, there is no reliable source of income for food or
utilities and the landlord of their battered apartment building has
posted an eviction notice. What’s a Fool to do? Join forces
with his sister’s boyfriend and enter a life of crime,
that’s what. The first score for the new thief is a
collection of gold coins owned by the same evil landlord that would
have Fool and his family out on the street.
Unfortunately
the crew of hapless bandits gets more than they bargained for with this
particular landlord, or landlords as the case may be. The owners of the
dilapidated building live in that old house on the
street…you know, THAT old house that children dare each
other to go near on Halloween. Not only that, but these two, along with
their “daughter”, are very odd to say the least,
and their house is a fortress designed to both keep intruders out and
the inhabitants in. There have been quite a few inhabitants.
Fool
becomes trapped inside and forced to use his wits and some very strange
alliances to escape with his life.
The People Under the Stairs is a very interesting
concept, reportedly conceived of after Craven read a news story about a
family that locked their kids inside the house and never let them
venture out. Goes to show you where a deranged imagination can go after
reading a single news item.
Aside
from the campy elements that mark Craven creations, there is also a
good bit of socially-liberal commentary in The People Under
the Stairs. The struggling family is poor and black, the evil
landlords are rich, wacky and lily white. The oppressed neighbors that descend on the
house to demand fair treatment are predominantly dark skinned and the
landlords use racial expletives here and there. This movie was made in
1991, a time when a social statement could be made where specific
racial elements were defined specifically to the statement
– something that could never happen in today’s
(2008) politically-correct atmosphere without a visit to Al
Sharpton’s radio studio. This film is a dinosaur in terms of
PC sensibility, but don’t blame Craven…nobody knew
how easily offended people were back then.
The
disaster of political correctness aside, The People Under the
Stairs is a great film for what it is – a horror
film with camp and fun. I recommend this one for movie marathons,
Halloween parties and as a film to keep in your collection as a
reminder of the days when horror could be fun without caring that
someone may take offence.
Note on Shocker:
Regardless of what "they" say, I LOVE Shocker and it remains one of the
movies that I will watch when nothing else sounds good. Don't listen to
the nay-sayers and check it out if you haven't yet.
Horror Movie Freaks
is the FREE eZine from Best-Horror-Movies.com
that will give you the new horror releases, the new horror news and the
new horror reviews that you CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT!!
Subscribing is easy, painless and free.
Do it NOW!!
ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:BlinkDel.icio.usDigg FurlGoogleSimpySpurlTechnoratiY!
MyWeb
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Technorati
Y!
MyWeb