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Stars:
Brandon Adams, Ving Rhames, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, and A.J. Langer
Writer:
Wes Craven
Director:
Wes Craven
Feature
length: 102 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Surround Sound and Spanish Language Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 18
Sound:
Dolby Surround Sound and Spanish Language Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1991/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Poindexter,
who goes by the name of “Fool”, is a thirteen-year-old boy living in a
rundown building infested with low lives whose mother is facing eviction in 24
hours and is dieing of a cancer that could be removed if the poor family only
had the money. Fool is lured into a scheme by one of his sister’s friends (Ving
Rhames) to break into their landlord’s house and steal some gold coins that
could be cashed in for more than enough money to pay the rent and his mother’s
operation. However these are not some ordinary slumlords. These are a brother
and sister who live as if they were married and steal children as their adopted
kids. If the child finds out the truth, their tongue gets cut out and they’re
placed in an elaborate dungeon of sorts in the basement where they live like
animals. The house was once a funeral home before the mad family got into real
estate and they are looking to evict Fool’s family so they can have the
building torn down and build expensive condominiums in it’s place. When Fool
breaks inside with his sister’s friend, they discover a house of horrors
complete with booby traps, secret passageways, and a killer dog. Soon Fool is
trapped with his only allies being a trapped girl and one of the people under
the stairs who lives in the walls of the house and taunts the owners.
Everett
McGill and Wendy Robie had already worked together playing husband and wife on
the TV series “Twin Peaks” and the movie is more of an urban folktale than a
horror film with McGill and Robbie going over the top for their respective
character roles. One should keep in mind the Craven is very much a student of
Jungian psychology and likes to take archetypes and place them in extremely dark
circumstances. For “Wes Craven’s The People Underneath The Stairs” we
basically are presented with an almost surreal world where one lone boy goes out
to save his family and undergoes various trials to become a man. The tarot card
reading in the film’s opening credits tells the viewer exactly what is going
to happen. Yes there are horrific elements that suggest cannibalism, sadism, and
incest, but the film presents it in such a way that the viewer is less shocked
and more enthralled with the hope that “Fool” will somehow survive and save
his family. The crazy landlords with more gold coins than they know what to do
with might as well be two dragons defending a treasure they can’t possibly use
and the girl could be the princess waiting on top of a tower to be saved by
gallant knight.
As
far as I know this is the first time “Wes Craven’s The People Underneath The
Stairs” is being released on DVD in Region One, North America anyway. A
barebones DVD release, the film is presented in an anamorphic widescreen
(1.85:1) aspect ratio, which is somewhat grainy throughout, but still yields
some nice detail and some deep blood reds. The English Dolby Surround Soundtrack
is fine and there is a Spanish Language Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack encoded
onto the DVD as well as English Captions for the hearing impaired and French and
Spanish Language Subtitles as options. There are no extra value bonus features
on the DVD. The menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to
navigate.
I
wish it had extra features like a commentary track, but for what it is, I am
happy to finally have “Wes Craven’s The People Under The Stairs” on DVD,
which will debut at retailers on and offline on Tuesday, October 7, 2003 from
Universal Studios Home Video.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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