The Stepfather is a remake of The Stepfather (1987) (1987). That movie itself was inspired by the case of New Jersey mass-murderer John "The Boogeyman" List, who shot his wife, three children, and his own mother in 1971 before changing his identity and fleeing the state. The script for the remake was written by American film-maker J.S. Cardone and has been updated to feature "List's" capture in 1989.List so meticulously plotted the crime that his family's bodies weren't discovered until a month after he'd fled. List remained on the run for 18 years until he was featured on the then-fledgling "America's Most Wanted," which led to his discovery working as an accountant in Virginia.
Aunt Leah does not die, because she takes an earlier flight to Hawaii for a two week vacation. However, Aunt Jackie is going to meet Leah by catching a later flight, but before she leaves the house for the airport, David (The Stepfather) catches her off guard, and drowns Jackie in her own pool during a terrible thunderstorm.
List so meticulously plotted the crime that his family's bodies weren't discovered until a month after he'd fled. He remained on the run for 18 years until he was featured on the then-fledgling TV show, "America's Most Wanted," (AMW) which led to his discovery working as an accountant in Virginia. He was returned to New Jersey for trial, where he admitted that he'd killed his family because he was struggling financially and would have seen going on welfare as a demonstration to the world that he didn't love them. Rather, List said, it was better to kill them and send them to Heaven. He refrained from killing himself because he believed that dying in the commission of a sin without having the opportunity to be forgiven would prevent him from joining his family in Heaven. He was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2008. Meanwhile, the success of the AMW episode featuring List served as an adequate demonstration that the TV show could be successful in capturing criminals, and the show's viewership skyrocketed.
It was cut from the final film in order to obtain a PG-13 rating. This scene doesn't appear in the 'Unrated Director's Cut' either, however it was in the original script.
Both the DVD and the Blu-ray include an Unrated Director's Cut which shows that quite a few scenes had to be cut out to get the profitable PG-13 rating. Even though all the cuts include violent content, the unrated version of the thriller still isn't a bloodbath. Fortunately enough, Amber Heards bikini-scenes were already uncut in the PG-13 version. Altogether the Unrated Version runs approx. 50 seconds longer than the Theatrical Version.
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