The Stepfather

A suspense/crime motion picture created by Nicholas McCormick. It is a story of a cold-blooded murderer whose mission in life is to marry a single mother in order for him to have a house and a family, he uses his charm and down-to-earth-make-believe appeal to lure single mothers to his bait, but when his position is threatened or when he noticed he could not dominate the family, his diabolic instinct start to surface.

In the opening of the film, someone called Grady Edwards (Dylan Walsh) is seen shaving and preparing to leave his house, the environment appeared quiet and relax as he was preparing his breakfast—coffee and toast bread—in the kitchen and even turned on the component and played a Christmas song.

At first I was thinking he would be going to a vacation as he was preparing two luggage and would temporarily lock his house, but the horrifying truth later on revealed when the scene of the murder was slowly shown in the background while Edwards was drinking coffee. Not far from where he was standing, three lifeless bodies scattered, a mother and her three children, the weapons used in the killing were put on each side of the body and at the kitchen sink.

Grady Edwards glanced casually at the living room where the dead were lying, then slowly picked his bags and closed the door, he left the garage with his car and roared away. Later, the Salt Lake City Police Department reported the murder and concluded the stepfather as the perpetrator of the crime but he remained at large and nobody knows where he is. The Stepfather changed identity when he arrived at Oregon. Now, Grady Edwards is looking for another victim and assumed another identity, David Harris.

Using his usual charm, he went to the grocery store and met Susan Harding (Sela Ward), a recently divorced woman with three children, she was attracted instantly and not long after, David moved to her home.  Her son, Michael, was surprised to find another man in their house. Then Michael became very suspicious with David, this doubt was intensified when one of their neighbours told his mother that America's Most Wanted ran a story about a missing serial killer that resembled David's face.

David realized he could not dominate this family. One stormy evening, Susan found David in the kitchen holding a knife and chased her, Michael, who already knew his biological father had been killed by David and kept in the basement's freezer, ran to his mother's side and rescued her. After minutes of chasing, running and fighting at the rooftop, David and Michael fall to the ground unconscious. The film's next scene revealed Michael being wheeled to the hospital. David surprisingly escaped and assumed another identity, Chris Ames, looking for another single mother to victimize again.

What puzzled me with this film is how the story ended. I mean why on earth David Harris was not arrested when the family of Susan Harding survived? They could have reported it to the police that Grady Edwards and David Harris are the same, after all Chris Ames did not change much of his physical features and looked exactly the same. I found too many inconsistencies in the film too like why Susan immediately woke up at the commotion downstairs where in fact she took up a sleeping pill?Why David was not confined in the hospital when he had a bad wound around his neck (Susan Harding stabbed him with a broken glass at the neck) and even managed to be employed in the grocery shop again? Michael did not see his father being smashed by David with crystals where in fact Michael looked down below where the body of his father was exactly located.

Well, suspense other wise, this film guarantees good entertainment and thrill never mind the loopholes.