Stepfather 3

The first film in the Stepfather slasher film series was excellent! The second film was respectable. This third film felt unnecessary, particularly because it was minus the star of the first two films, Terry O'Quinn. This sequel picks up following the events of part two with the homicidal stepfather again escaping custody and this time getting plastic surgery, which explains the change of actor. Robert Wightman takes over as Keith Grant / The Stepfather and once again tries to find the perfect all-American family. This new family has Priscilla Barnes as the mother to a young wheelchair-bound boy, who is paralyzed for no medically explained reason. His condition is all in his mind and, of course, SPOILER ALERT! works its way into the film's finale where he has to use his legs to fight off his deranged stepfather. Wightman is passable as the stepfather and actually does a good job impersonating the odd Robert Young Father Knows Best speech cadence established by O'Quinn in the firsts two films, but he lacks the the edge and frightening mental instability O'Quinn brought to the role. Overall, this is a pretty run of the mill slasher flick. Nothing terrible, but nothing all that interesting either. Season Hubley, John Ingle, and Christa Miller also appear in the film.