Today’s movie of the day is The Stepfather (1987) directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Terry O’ Quinn, Jill Schoelen and Shelley Hack. 

It is about a man name Jerry Blake (although he uses different aliases and is played by Terry O’ Quinn). We first meet him in the bathroom wiping off steam from a mirror before he moves on to a new persona. 

Clean shaven and ready to descend into a new life he walks out of the bathroom and down the steps of the house to the door where we see the murder and destruction he caused to the family he was with.

Flash forward to a year later we learn the Jerry has remarried Susan (played by Shelley Hack). A widow with a teenage daughter named Stephanie ( played by Jill Schoelen) Stephanie has always felt that something was really off about Jerry and is very persistent to find out the validation of her feelings. 

Yes Jerry may perceive himself to be the all American Dad with the perfect family however Jerry has a bad streak inside him that takes over whenever someone questions him. This is not your typical horror movie I felt like this movie was more of super upscale Lifetime kind of movie.

Some fun facts about this movie:

This movie is somewhat based on a true story of John List. He killed his wife, mom and three children in New Jersey in 1971 . He was on the run for 18 years before he was caught in due part of his case being aired on the TV show: America’s Most Wanted

This movie was shot in about two months.

In one of the first drafts of this movie there was more of an explanation of Jerry Blake as to why he felt the need to kill people but in the final script they decided to not use the plot.

Until Next time!