The People Under the Stairs is probably one of Wes Craven's most under-appreciated works of film, and honestly, for good reason. This film is a very confusing comedy/horror film that mixes elements of race, class, and monsters in one convoluted story. I appreciated the effort to bring in controversial elements of the time, but I do not feel like this film did it justice.
While this film did not do much for me, horror-wise, it definitely mixed a lot of aspects of the late 80's and 90's that could contain a lot of appeal to fans of his genre. There were strange mutant men in the basement of the house and a semi-comedic storyline, which definitely took elements from films like The Goonies. These elements just did not seem to work with the film, however. Other films such as Scream or A Nightmare on Elm Street are definitely where Craven thrives, but quite honestly, not in his lesser-known films like this one. The good aspects of this film, however, were the performances. Fool, played by Brandon Quintin Adams, was the leading role and he definitely embodied his character. He was such a naive young boy in the "ghetto," and he had such a pure heart. I loved his character the most because he was the only character in the film who made any sense, honestly. All of the other characters in the film gave strong performances, but the way their characters were written seemed like the writers went on Google and searched "random character generator" and picked the first four of five that came up. The characters did not seem to match the tone of the story at all.
Some of the things about this film made me very uncomfortable, to be honest, and did not make much logical sense. Such things as the motives behind the parents and the strange design choices throughout the film. The questions surrounding why the deranged parents kept all of their outcast boys in the basement and why they hated their neighborhood so much were never answered. There seemed to be no motive or reason behind why they did what they did, and that just further confused me. There was also never a clear explanation of whether they were husband and wife or brother and sister and that blurred the weird line even more. As for the BDSM bodysuit that the man wore while hunting the mutant in the wall, your guess is as good as mine as to why the hell that had to be included in the story.
Other elements that just did not work with the story include the undertones of race and class. While the protagonists were introduced as the stereotypical, poor, black family from the "ghetto," the antagonists were the white, (supposedly) incestual parents. There was some type of racial and class-related statement hidden in there, but I couldn't quite reach it because there was never a clear indication as to why Craven decided to go that direction. And the tone throughout the film shifted awkwardly, because while the film is marketed as a horror film, it is more of a comedy/adventure. And then shifting to an inspirational tone in the last scene with "Do The Right Thing" by Redhead Kingpin & The FBI playing in the background confused me so much. This film just seems to be a mess of varying ideas.
The People Under the Stairs is a strange attempted horror comedy that is not one of Craven's best films. It is interesting to watch as there were controversial discussions about race and related class in the 90's, but this film did not portray any of those well. If you want a better Craven horror experience, I recommend watching literally anything else by him.
No comments:
Post a Comment