In Hollywood, IP is king, and everything is cyclical. It should come as no surprise, then, that even a smaller title like The Stepfather (1987) has gotten the remake treatment several times over. First, it was the 2009 Penn Badgley/Dylan Walsh joint, and now Tubi has gone ahead with a new iteration with 2026’s Stepfather.
Written and directed by Christopher B. Stokes, the new film stars Taye Diggs as Leon/Kennedy/Darnell, a man in search of the perfect family and willing to kill for it. Following Panic Room-inspired opening credits stretched across downtown buildings, Stepfather opens in 1990 when 10-year-old Leon talks with therapist Marsha Sanders (Lisa Ann Loggins) in the wake of his stepfather Harold’s (Kenneth J. Morgan) death.
In flashbacks, it’s revealed that Harold beat young Leon and, in the process, instilled a key tenet that would define Leon as an adult: “too bad you don’t get to pick your own family.” It’s also evident that Leon allowed Harold to die: following a pretty upsetting beating, the boy watched his stepfather pass from a heart attack rather than call 911.
The film then flashes ahead to the present as adult Leon, now named Kennedy, murders his latest family (this will later be revealed to be his third, stretched across Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico). He then introduces himself to Asia (Tamar Braxton) and her youngest daughter, Sasha (Kalani Jules), as Darnell in a grocery store meet-cute.
Asia has just moved her family away from her cheating ex, Timothy (TJ Shaw). Emotionally vulnerable and susceptible to flattery, Asia and Darnell quickly hit it off and, six months later, they have eloped.
The biggest issue with Stokes’ film is that it is both too slight and too familiar. Surprisingly, no one, Darnell is a model husband and stepfather right up until the moment his “perfect” family fails to meet his expectations. When Sasha repeatedly refuses to refer to him as Dad because she misses Timothy, there’s a visual fake-out of Darnell striking and/or yelling at her. These interior glimpses of Darnell’s rage eventually escalate into real-life outbursts, often when he confuses Asia and the kids for the families he’s killed in the past.
One novel visual choice occurs when Darnell accepts that he must terminate his latest imperfect family. As the police close in, he rents a cheap motel room and engages in a three-way conversation with phantom hallucinations of Leon and Kennedy, each of whom has their own distinct costume, vocal mannerism, and personality.
It’s a moment that’s reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, not just for Diggs’ solid performance as three different personas, but also for its questionable pop psychology about mental health. When the police interview Marsha, she unloads a torrent of exposition about her patient’s condition (without a warrant!), explaining: “Leon suffers from extreme trauma…bipolar and schizophrenia, as well as hallucinations,” which he apparently can’t distinguish from reality. Marsha is quick to explain that Leon/Darnell doesn’t even know he’s committed a crime.
It’s an outdated and tired line of thinking, which is unfortunate because it undercuts Diggs’s performance, which is the only reason to check out Stepfather. While Braxton is fine as the deluded housewife torn between husbands new and old, Asia lacks any kind of interiority. The character exists solely in relation to Darnell, a criticism that applies to both of her two daughters, Sasha, the obstacle to Darnell’s fantasy family life, and Melanie (Jessica Jarrell), the College-aged daughter who is more than happy to call Darnell “dad” because she sees how happy her mother is.
Alas, Stokes never pushes the plot or the characters beyond the most obvious situations, which leads to plenty of predictable dinner and bedroom scenes as the female characters inadvertently trigger Darnell’s psychosis and he fantasizes about murdering them. Any men who wander into the proceedings, such as Timothy or Melanie’s boyfriend, Brad (Koda Kalani Beschen), are obvious Red Shirts destined for slaughter. By contrast, Asia’s curious (and possibly queer-coded) brother, Brett (Troy Brookins), is never given an opportunity to do anything.
And then there are the cops, who occupy a substantial amount of screentime and repeatedly threaten to launch the film into camp territory. With the exception of Detective Bronson (Darrell Philip), who takes “Kennedy’s” statement after the murder of his wife and stepdaughter, every single member of law enforcement in the film is inept, belligerent, or flat-out rude.
Young, boastful Detective John Simmons (Ma‘s Dante Brown) joins the squad late with an introduction that is both ageist, condescending, and completely out of left field. When Bronson outlines their profile of the killer, Simmons’ response is: “Ok, blah blah blah. It’s a lot of information on this killer dude. It’s like a movie.” Like…what?!
He immediately butts heads with new partner Detective Andrews (Janeline Hayes), who one expects might be more open-minded, but proves just as standoffish. Late in the film, when questioning a witness who has tangled with Darnell, Andrews berates the battered victim: “You assumed he was dead, but you didn’t wait to see?!” Even a random police officer gets in on the asshole behavior, heavily inferring that Asia’s promiscuous behavior is to blame for a fight between Darnell and Timothy that leaves the latter with multiple broken ribs.
The baffling human responses across the board feel out of place with the more serious threats of domestic violence, making for an extremely uneven viewing experience. If the film played up its ridiculous elements more, Stepfather could be a fun diversion in the Hallmark/Lifetime vein. Unfortunately, most of its perplexing elements feel accidental, rather than intentional.
Despite Diggs’ commitment to the bit, there just isn’t enough here to recommend. Stepfather could have been a fun guilty pleasure, but Stokes is too content to stick to well-tread narrative beats without offering anything new. Underdeveloped characters and fleeting violent set pieces simply don’t cut it, which makes the brief 93-minute runtime drag badly.
File this under a disappointing missed opportunity.
Stepfather is now streaming on Tubi.
