The Stepfather (1987) ***1/2

This one was a long overdue (like decades) first-time watch. I really enjoyed Joseph Ruben's The Stepfather (1987). Terry O'Quinn does top notch work as the titular character, Jill Schoelen is very strong as well (and I would have had a major crush on her if I'd seen this when I was a teenager), and I quite liked how the film is more of a psychological thriller than an outright horror movie. 

There are certainly some shocking scenes of gore and violence, but the reason those scenes are as powerful as they are is because they are few and far between (and also shot and edited really well). There is a nice subtle layer of black humor that runs throughout the movie, which I greatly appreciated. The score is a bit cheesy and I thought some of the queues felt out of place (though I really like how '80s-sounding the theme is). The Stepfather doesn't necessarily offer any surprises, but it's a really well-made genre picture.