Movies
The Stepfather
“The Stepfather is a scary film, because it’s really based in a world most people walk around in everyday—suburbia. Blake is just another mild-mannered dad who spends his evenings down in the basement building birdhouses. He just wants to keep his family together. The problem is, Jerry is a psychopath.”
All Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn) wanted was the perfect life. The perfect wife, the perfect kids, the perfect home in the perfect neighborhood. All Jerry wanted was the “American Dream”. But people aren’t picture perfect and relationships are messy and teenage daughters get into fights at school and make out with boys on the front porch. Most parents would take those kinds of hurdles and chalk them up to the sporadic nature of existence. But not Jerry. Those kind of behaviors “disappoint” Jerry. And when Jerry is disappointed he expresses that disappointment with the business-end of a gleaming stainless steel blade…or maybe a nearby 2×4.
The Stepfather is a scary film, because it’s really based in a world most people walk around in everyday—suburbia. Blake is just another mild-mannered dad who spends his evenings down in the basement building birdhouses. He just wants to keep his family together. The problem is, Jerry is a psychopath. The second anything pushes Jerry outside his comfort zone of Leave it to Beaver normality, he skips right past the guard gate of sanity and dances his way into the loony bin.
When Don Westlake (The Grifters) wrote the screenplay for this 1987 film over a decade earlier, he based it on the story of John List, a New Jersey man who, in 1971, after losing his accounting job, meticulously set-up a new life for himself before returning home one day to murder his entire family. List was so successful in pulling off this heinous crime it would be a month before anyone discovered what he had done and 18-years before he was ever caught—thanks to a profile on Americas Most Wanted.
Released 2-years before List was even caught, The Stepfather is not a subtle film. It opens with Blake, covered in blood, cutting his hair, trimming his beard, applying contact lenses and changing his clothes. When the new fresh faced Blake descends from the upstairs bathroom, the audience is chilled to witness the terror he inflicted on his previous “family”. The walls are painted with blood, the living room is a shambles and the dead body of a child is lying in a pool of gore with a stuffed animal just inches out of reach. Blake is the bad guy and make no mistake about it, O’Quinn plays him with the masterful and malicious charm of Ted Bundy. He looks so serenely perfect on the outside but if you look closer you can almost see the world crumbling in his eyes.
Joseph Ruben’s (Sleeping with the Enemy) film might not seem that shocking today. Something of a sad comment on a society that has seen more than its share of parents and husbands and wives kill off their kids. But the film’s opening is still unflinchingly raw and unnerving even if the rest of the film suffers from its age and the somewhat contrived nature of its plot devices.
80’s horror princess Jill Schoelen (Popcorn, Cutting Class, Phantom of the Opera) is young and fun in her role as Stephanie Maine—the stepdaughter with a knack for getting into trouble and the only one that suspects that Blake is really a serial killer. Ex-Charlie’s Angel Shelly Hack does an acceptably oblivious job as Stephanie’s mother Susan, but this is really Terry O’Quinn’s film. So much so that, even though it appears in the film frames that Stephanie has killed the killer, O’Quinn managed to reprise his role just two years later to terrorize Meg Foster in The Stepfather 2.
With the remake imminent, Shout Factory has seen fit to re-release The Stepfather in a deluxe special edition DVD featuring a pretty comprehensive documentary with interviews from director Ruben and star Schoelen. I know it was too much to ask for O’Quinn to make an appearance in the supplements, but it’s still a shame he’s not around. It would have been nice to hear his take on what was essentially his first major starring role–despite the fact that he’d already been in some 20 other films. The disc also features audio commentary by Ruben.
With the re-release of The Stepfather (and The Stepfather 2 courtesy of Synapse) we’re just that much closer to getting the trilogy out on DVD. I hope you’re listening Lionsgate. You better get Part 3 out ASAP. After all…you wouldn’t want to “disappoint” the film’s fan base. You know what happens when you disappoint daddy!
This week’s big new horror release is of course Evil Dead Burn in theaters later in the week, but you don’t have to wait until this weekend to inject fresh nightmares into your eyeballs.
Five brand new horror movies have already released at home this week.
Here’s all the new horror that released on Tuesday, July 7, 2026!
Director André Øvredal’s (The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Last Voyage of the Demeter) new movie Passenger is now available on Digital at home.
Here’s the synopsis for Passenger: “A few weeks into their van life adventure, a young couple witnesses a horrific accident that leaves the driver dead. Soon they’re being pursued by a demonic stalker who’s impossible to outrun and follows them wherever they go.”
André Øvredal told Bloody Disgusting in an exclusive chat, “It’s a road movie, which is what I really fell in love with. It’s totally unique for me as a horror movie. Bridging the road movie with a haunting, essentially, on the road. I think it’s the scariest movie I’ve made.”
The cast includes Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo, Tony Doupe, Bonni Dichone, Devielle Johnson, Jessica Cruz, Miles Fowler, and Alan Trong.
The screenplay is written by Zachary Donohue (The Den) and T.W. Burgess (Mister Howl). Former Warner Bros production executive Walter Hamada, who steered the Conjuring and It franchises, is producing via his 18hz as part of his first-look deal with Paramount. It screenwriter Gary Dauberman is also producing via Coin Operated.
Supernatural horror, psychological suspense, and an eye-catching creature take center stage in The Leaching, now available on Digital from Dark Star Pictures and Uncork’d Entertainment.
“After waking up in a grave on her father’s isolated forest property with no idea of who she is or how she got there, Vivian must use her limited memory to piece together the nightmarish truth, all the while being tormented by the undead, a giant leech monster, and her ‘father.’
“Over the next few days, she will uncover the framework of a truly nefarious supernatural scheme, but will it be too late?”
The Leaching is written and directed by Evan Showalter (Ante Mortem, Bad Music Terry).
“The Leaching is an exploration of faith, the loss of self, and the monsters (literally) that emerge when people surrender themselves to something greater than they can understand,” says Showalter. “It’s an isolating horror film that plays with a very uncomfortable question.”
A film student finds herself trapped in a giallo nightmare in lo-fi horror movie City Wide Fever, which is now streaming exclusively on the Midnight Pulp streaming service.
The meta horror movie is from debut writer/director Josh Heaps.
In City Wide Fever, “Sam, a young film student, discovers a USB detailing the life and career of forgotten Italian horror director Saturnino Barresi.
“As she begins to investigate his mysterious disappearance, Sam finds herself pulled into a violent conspiracy eerily similar to those of the films she adores.”
Diletta Guglielmi, Angelica Kim, and Nancy Kimball star with Onur Tukel (Summer of Blood), Larry Fessenden (You’re Next), Carolyn Farina, and comedian Ian Fidance.
Paul Lê wrote in his review for Bloody Disgusting, “This isn’t just a case of throwback filmmaking that’s been achieved with contemporary technology; the director used era-authentic equipment to help create this striking and nostalgic piece of modern horror. The end result is a movie… teeming with enough verve and style to make it feel fresh.”
A Gen Z slasher that pays homage to ’90s teen slasher movies, You’re Dead to Me is now available on Digital outlets at home courtesy of distributor Dark Star Pictures.
In the slasher film, “Three high school seniors skip prom for a secluded weekend party free from parents, school, and responsibility, but their escape turns terrifying when they learn one of their classmates has been brutally murdered.”
Denise Richards (Valentine) stars alongside Siena Agudong (Sidelined: The QB and Me, Sidelined 2: Intercepted), Jessica Belkin (“Baywatch” ), Ella Anderson (“Henry Danger,” Song Sung Blue), and Conor Husting (“Boo, Bitch”, Hollywood Stargirl).
The film was directed by Juan Pablo Arias Munoz.
You’re Dead to Me was co-written by Sarah Howard and Terry Castle, the daughter of the legendary producer and filmmaker William Castle (House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler).
Steven Quale (Into the Storm, Final Destination 5) directed the supernatural thriller Black Box, which has now taken flight on Digital outlets courtesy of Aura Entertainment.
The film is based on the short film The Vessel, and an original screenplay from horror writer Stephen Susco (The Grudge, The Grudge 2, Texas Chainsaw 3D, Hell Fest).
Black Box (Flight 298) follows the supernatural events surrounding Vero Airlines 298 from New Orleans to Seattle.
Tom Brittney, Holly Leena White, Betsy Blue English, Dane Whyte O’Hara, Kaja Chan, Asa Ali, Boadicea Ricketts, Ceallach Spellman, Georgina Leonidas, Molly Belle Wright, Hanneke Talbot, Danny Mack, and Weronika Rosati star in Black Box.
Hammerstone Studios’ Alex Lebovici (Barbarian, Boy Kills World) and Jon Oakes (Drive, The Guilty) will produce alongside Capstone’s Christian Mercuri and David Haring (Bill & Ted Face the Music), Warren Zide (The Final Destination, American Pie), and Susco. Ruzanna Kegeyan and Roman Viaris of Capstone, and Clark Baker (Vessel) will executive produce.
What happened to Flight 298? Find out on Digital outlets now.
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