STEPFATHER 2:
MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY
It can't be as bad as its title, right?
The Calgary Herald is not a newspaper that has historically been too kind to horror movies of any stripe; before The Blair Witch Project, the highest rating I'd ever seen a horror movie awarded was 3 ½ stars, in 1994, for New Nightmare. And five years previous, curiously, for Stepfather 2: Make Room For Daddy. All speculation aside about the merit (or lack thereof) of horror movies that got a widespread enough release since 1989 to get into Calgary theaters, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that this is tied for the best horror movie in ten years. Still, it ain't bad, and it's way better than we had any right to expect.
Stepfather 2 gets off to a fairly intriguing start, in the Puget Sound Mental Institution. (we're helpfully told that this is in Puget Sound, Washington, for the benefit of those who think it actually matters what state this takes place in, but don't know enough U.S. geography to figure it out on their own) Our favorite Mr. Ed-lovin' family-killer (Terry O'Quinn, reprising his role) is in this mental institution undergoing therapy. Think about this for a moment - we never did see Jason, Freddy, or Michael blubbering to a psychiatrist, sobbing about their dogs when they were nine. You know he's not really serious about this, just biding his time until he can set the events of the film into motion, but it's still pretty neat - most movie maniacs we see in movie mental institutions are either completely silent or they completely rebuff any attempt at therapy.
Anyways, Jerry (or whatever the hell his name is) busts out (using methods I once thought of as quite clever, although today, security seems awful lax at this mental institution that harbors mass-serial killers) and starts anew. With unexplained resources, he gets a house (still in Washington State; you'd think he'd relocate to Iowa or someplace) and sets up a group therapy practice (!), and starts cruising the video-dating services to find a new single mother to horn in on. He gives up on these wacky women and sets his sight on the lady who sold him the house: Meg Foster, with her scary way-beyond-icy blue eyes.
Caroline "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" Williams plays one of the women in Jerry's therapy group, sporting hoop earrings big enough to hula with, and Jonathan Brandis (the genius kid from Seaquest DSV) plays Meg's son. I remember when this movie first came out, he and Danielle "Halloween 5" Harris appeared on Geraldo to comment on violence and children in the movies. They didn't have anything very interesting to say.
The story is definitely treading on familiar ground, although this movie focuses on the actual courtship leading up to the marriage instead of the marriage itself. Unfortunately, the romance between the two leads just crops up out of nowhere, and suddenly, they're engaged. Not that I would have liked to have seen them go through the whole "Could I have the pleasure of your company this evening" rigamarole, but this seems pretty sudden.
O'Quinn's performance here is inspired and (almost) unique, although it comes across as a pale shade of his work in the original. What The Stepfather gave us was an interesting look at a violent, male flip-side of the "tyranny of the media" we always hear about, usually attached to women and impossible-to-attain standards of beauty. Having seen a lifetime of perfect fathers with perfect families, Jerry pursued (in his own maniacal way) an impossible-to-attain standard of familial perfection. Stepfather 2 abandons that aspect - Jerry's relationship with the media here is limited to trying to get people to look the other way when his picture is shown on TV. Still, he's intense, motivated, and interesting, which puts him head and shoulders above his slasher brethren.
The rest of the cast is mostly appealing - Brandis is a little less annoying than Jill Schloen from the first film, and Foster is likeable as (almost) always. Williams doesn't get much to do other than play the doomed "suspicious friend" role, investigating her suspicions and doing the stupidest possible thing with what she uncovers.
This movie also cranks up the gore levels beyond that of the first installment, as part-two's are always wont to do. I hope the wedding I'm going to tonight is half as much fun as the one at the climax of this movie, which features hammer violence and everything! Whee! But what's with that box cover art? It has O'Quinn poised with a knife over wedding-cake decorations of the bride (Foster) and the son (Brandis), but there's also a little girl and a dog. I don't get it.
Overall? Even O'Quinn can't make this quite worth recommending, but it's still not bad.