Stepfather III (1992)
** (out of 4)
After the events in the previous film, the stepfather finds himself at a plastic surgeon changing his apperance. Flash forward nine months and single mother Christine (Priscilla Barnes) meets the charming Keith Grant (Robert Wightman). The two quickly fall in love but Christine's young son Andy (David Tom) just feels that something isn't quite right with his new stepfather.
You know, STEPFATHER III was obviously just a cheap film to try and cash in on the success of the first two but I must say that there was an actual good movie lurking around this thing but sadly it just never came together, which is really too bad. With that being said, the film was quite frustrating to me because for every good thing there were at least two bad ones and in the end the film is more of a disappointment than anything else.
Obviously the plastic surgery bit was done because Terry O'Quinn wasn't willing to come back to the film. This entire gimmick seems pretty stupid so perhaps it would have been a better idea had they simply started the series over and had a new person doing the killings. However, that decision wasn't made and we've got the same guy once again looking for the perfect family. One of the film's good parts is the fact that there's a twist in the story where a second family enters the picture halfway through. I really liked how they did this and thought it added something fresh to the story.
I liked other touches throughout the film including smaller moments where Keith is carrying out these two lives and mixes them up. One example is when he says the wrong child's name. I also thought there was a nice jump scene towards the very end of the picture. Performances are also rather mixed here as Barnes was quite good and I also liked John Ingle in the role of Father Brennan. As for Wightman, I just didn't care too much for him in the role. I thought some of his line deliveries were unintentionally funny and he just wasn't much of a threat to me.
Another problem that I had with the film is that the filmmakers didn't seem to realize that they were making a horror film. This movie clocks in at 104-minutes, which is way too long for this type of film. A lot of the family drama could have been left out and the film just takes way too long to get where it's going. Had some of this been edited out there's no question that the film would have been more entertaining. The death scenes are all done cheaply but they look okay.
** (out of 4)
After the events in the previous film, the stepfather finds himself at a plastic surgeon changing his apperance. Flash forward nine months and single mother Christine (Priscilla Barnes) meets the charming Keith Grant (Robert Wightman). The two quickly fall in love but Christine's young son Andy (David Tom) just feels that something isn't quite right with his new stepfather.
You know, STEPFATHER III was obviously just a cheap film to try and cash in on the success of the first two but I must say that there was an actual good movie lurking around this thing but sadly it just never came together, which is really too bad. With that being said, the film was quite frustrating to me because for every good thing there were at least two bad ones and in the end the film is more of a disappointment than anything else.
Obviously the plastic surgery bit was done because Terry O'Quinn wasn't willing to come back to the film. This entire gimmick seems pretty stupid so perhaps it would have been a better idea had they simply started the series over and had a new person doing the killings. However, that decision wasn't made and we've got the same guy once again looking for the perfect family. One of the film's good parts is the fact that there's a twist in the story where a second family enters the picture halfway through. I really liked how they did this and thought it added something fresh to the story.
I liked other touches throughout the film including smaller moments where Keith is carrying out these two lives and mixes them up. One example is when he says the wrong child's name. I also thought there was a nice jump scene towards the very end of the picture. Performances are also rather mixed here as Barnes was quite good and I also liked John Ingle in the role of Father Brennan. As for Wightman, I just didn't care too much for him in the role. I thought some of his line deliveries were unintentionally funny and he just wasn't much of a threat to me.
Another problem that I had with the film is that the filmmakers didn't seem to realize that they were making a horror film. This movie clocks in at 104-minutes, which is way too long for this type of film. A lot of the family drama could have been left out and the film just takes way too long to get where it's going. Had some of this been edited out there's no question that the film would have been more entertaining. The death scenes are all done cheaply but they look okay.