'The Stepfather' (2009) Movie Review

His newest target is divorcee Susan Harding (Sela Ward) and her three kids, including oldest son Michael (Penn Badgley), who has recently returned home from a year away at military school. For six months of dating, David seems like the perfect man, and he and Susan get engaged, despite misgivings by the ever-rebellious teen Michael.

As clues to David's true identity begin to pile up, though, so do the bodies of people who get too close to the truth. Michael becomes all the more suspicious when he hears about an America's Most Wanted episode profiling a "stepfather killer," but his girlfriend Kelly (Amber Heard) tells him that he's overreacting. Michael, however, feels that he has to check out the locked cabinets David built in the basement, virtually ensuring that this family, like his last, won't work out for the killer formerly known as Grady.

With its hip modern trappings and a switch from the teen heroine of the original to a hero, the movie plays like Disturbia, with the mysterious stranger living inside the house instead of next door. Disturbia, though -- itself a remake of sorts (of Rear Window) -- had a level of freshness that The Stepfather lacks.

Walsh's lead as the smooth-talking stepdad is engaging enough to cover up some of the film's flaws, but his cool sociopathic approach lacks the maniacal element that made Terry O'Quinn's performance in the original iconic enough to launch two sequels. The cast as a whole is the high point of a film with few highlights.

The writer-director team of J.S. Cardone and Nelson McCormick previously worked on the Prom Night remake, and though The Stepfather outshines that effort in every way, it continues their run of perfunctory filmmaking -- lacking any genuine attempt at style, substance, innovation or edge (PG-13 alert!).

The story doesn't delve far enough into David's psyche to hammer home his objective, nor does it make the family rounded or likeable enough for us to care about their fate (Heard's character is literally there for just bikini and underwear shots). The direction, meanwhile, makes their fate even less compelling by failing to generate genuine thrills. The lifeless finale is emblematic of the film as a whole, seemingly edited down to limp, if watchable, pabulum.

• Acting: B (Solid all around, helping to make the bland content palatable.)
• Direction: C (Straightforward, lacking any real thrills or unique style.)
• Script: C- (A shallow, predictable reinterpretation.)
• Gore/Effects: C (Little to speak of.)
• Overall: C (Little more than a big-screen TV movie of the week, with none of the original's cult appeal.)

The Stepfather is directed by Nelson McCormick and is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, mature thematic material and brief sensuality.. Release date: October 16, 2009.