The Stepfather 2 (1987)

Following on the heels of the first “Stepfather” this above average sequel finds everybody’s favorite psycho version of Ward Cleaver having survived part one and now locked up in a looney bin. Before you can finish whistling “Camptown Races” the man is back on the street and posing as a shrink in a comfortable L.A. suburb. Here he puts the moves on a recent divorcee and her young son, hoping to start the, you guessed it, “perfect family” all over again. To make things interesting however, Step-Daddy’s new flame has a snooping best friend (it’s Stretch from Chainsaw 2!) and ex-hubby looking to get back in the picture. What’s a psycho Stepfather to do? I think we both know the answer to that.

Terry O’Quinn is back in the title role, and without him this sequel would have had an extremely hard time coming close to the first film. The man “is” the character, whenever I see the dude in an old “A-Team” rerun or something I always think of him as “The Stepfather”. Type casting’s a bitch, huh Terry? O’Quinn’s performance really makes the film, and I particularly enjoyed the subtle touch of humor given to the character. The “video-dating” scene comes to mind as I heartily laughed my ass off. The man may be nuts, but at least he has taste in women. For the character itself I was hoping for a little more back-story in terms of how he came to be the nut he is, though I’m guessing it was the typical “abused childhood” syndrome. The rest of the cast is fairly decent, with even the kid actor doing an admirable job. Playing the Stepfather’s new flame is Meg Foster who possesses the freakiest pair of eyes you’ll ever see, and if she lived in my neighborhood as a youngster let me just say you’d be hearing a lot of “peep peeps” coming from her house after dark for sure. There were some decent suspense scenes leading up to the big final, which is probably one of the bloodiest “weddings” ever filmed.

Overall though, I enjoyed O’Quinn’s performance the most and even found myself rooting for the guy a little bit. The dude just wants the perfect family, what’s so wrong about that? I do hear that the studio added new gore scenes after the film was wrapped, while trimming about ten minutes of dialogue and the like, just to let ya know. Recommended for fans of the first film.