Review: The People Under the Stairs
Director: Wes Craven
I don't know what happened in Craven's head. Maybe he decided he wanted a new target audience. While he has proven to be a cunning businessman one might wonder why he would make a horror film centering around a thirteen-year-old african american boy that needs to steal from his crazy landlord so his family won't get evicted. This absurd attempt at playing a social note is uncalled for an only helps to sink this puppy faster.
The first ten minutes or so, set up the sob-story to get the boy into the house. (Like any intelligent person, the hero robs the house of his landlord when threatened by to evict.)The landlord doesn't live alone, he is accompanied by his equally psychotic sister, a brainwashed little girl called Alice and Prince, the ravenous Doberman whom shares the same amount of brain-cells as his owner. And yes, shockingly enough, just as the title says the people under the stairs. - And people they are. Just people, looking like un-groomed third-rate Mortis impersonators. Scary hu?So the (Robin)Hood threesome tries to burgle but it doesn't quite go the they planned. Trapdoors, steel doors, trap-stairs, the mutt from hell and of course the trigger happy landlord come to mess things up.
It seems they tried to give the house a living maze quality which fails to intrigue the viewer, but manages to bore after awhile. (I'll take the buildings from Rosemary's Baby and the Toolbox Murders over this 'crib' anytime) The breathtaking effects the cover praises are nowhere to be found. And the 'never-wrecking' promise is only half-true. There is very little tension but it does get really annoying to watch if you make it through the first hour. Seriously, the landlord looks ridiculous, and since he only hits his targets by total accident he isn't very threatening and his dominatrix outfit makes him look like a boy-toy for Pinhead.The majority of the plot boils down to ; silly leather-clad man shoots at random in his house while his dog runs around having a bite out of the intruders once in a while. And while this tiresome chase continues, kids hide in everything (virtually every wall or cupboard is a secret passage, and if that doesn't work they just push out the bricks).
Furthermore the People Under the Stairs contains some irredeemable fighting sequences that really seem snatched away from some disney film (with added ammunition ). The violence generally steeps down to slapstick level. The little kid beats the crap out of everyone and never gets hit, but does survive two electrocutions AND and explosion (the kind of explosion that kills bad-guys but doesn't incinerate dollar bills) As for the gore; Prince trades his doggy chow for a rubber hand with some sirup, unconvincing stabbing and a short gutting scene which contrasts as surprisingly extreme gore with the rest.
The ending is so awfully predictable, yet moronically executed you expect the Mickey Mouse logo to show up between the credits. This can only be mildly appealing to a twelve-year-old. The kind that likes to watch Buffy. Need I nay more? I don't know if it's out due to misplaced pity or a desperate marketing twitch but some people actually call this film a satire. A satire on what? Craven? I don't care if you want to call it comedy in order to 'elevate' it. It's practically worthless no matter what genre you wish to lable it with. There is one slogan used on the box which has some solid truth to it - 'some houses are better avoided', and yes this is one of them.- AVOID. What do you think is going to happen next? A remake? No, that's not cynicism on my part, Wes Craven has spilled that after his Hills Have Eyes remake, he is also planning to remake Last House on the Left and he's also considering The People Under the Stairs. Looks like somebody is milking his dead cows. -What's next ? A Nightmare on Elmstreet remake released simultaneously with yet another sequel? Each time Freddy dies, the sound of the cash-register suffices to revive him.
Reviewed by: LordLeviathan, added August 26 2006
Comments: The People Under the Stairs
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Other reviews of Wes Craven's Movies.
Last House on the Left | Red Eye
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Abre Los Ojos | Bad Moon | El Día de la besta | Spiders II - Breeding Ground | The New York Ripper
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The Wicked City (Yao shou du shi) | Night of the Creeps | The People Under the Stairs | Abre Los Ojos | Bad Moon
[9-30-06 12:20 PM]
Man, I used to love this movie. It's hilarious.
- Stalker's Rage