Hello horror friend! How are you doing? Hope you’ve been having a fantastic summer so far, going out, doing stuff, enjoying life. Wanna hear a secret? Summer is one of my favorite seasons so I’ve been loving this delicious warm weather and do not want it to end! And this weekend is the Fourth of July so my heart is glowing with excitement for the Holiday and the three-day weekend!
Okay, okay, enough about life, let’s talk horror, shall we?
So, do you know how most of the time horror movies don’t do a good job at explaining the motive behind the killer’s actions? Well, The Stepfather (1987) is not one of those movies as it does a great job at showing you why the bad guy does what he does, and—oh my goodness gracious, it is a big and—it goes as far as making you feel empathy and compassion for him and think, Hey, you know what, you gotta do what you gotta do, baby, we all deserve to be happy somehow! #live #youdoyou
Enter Jerry Blake and his many complicated, yet reasonable and relatable emotional layers. He might be a horrible person but he is doing his best, alright? To be content, all he needs is a well-respected job (this time as a Realtor), a pleasant appearance (this time as a well-suited, well-groomed, charming gentleman), a beautiful wife (this time Susan), a kid (this time 16-year-old Stephanie), a dog (this time a cute mutt), and a beautiful house (this time in Washington State). All Jerry ever wanted was the perfect life and the perfect family.
The problem with perfection is that it does not exist, and just like in the arts, the perfect life is subjective, so while you might think that a quiet and predictable life in the suburbs with a wife and kids is the perfect life, I might think it is the worst thing that could ever happen to me, after all, nothing beats the hustle and bustle of city life with multiple lovers, money in the bank, and the flexibility of a life abundant in freedom!
Time and time again Jerry was reminded that the perfect life and the perfect family did not exist, however, and this was one of his worse character flaws (murdering being the worst, of course), instead of trying to work things out he would give up the minute his “perfect family image” was damaged. One, two, three, done. The emotional link was broken and in a few weeks he would kill the “soiled” family and move on to his next identity, his next household, his next life.
Here, this was the moment in the film when I felt bad for Jerry, right after he had a “terrible” fight with his wife and step-daughter, the moment when he was walking around his neighborhood in deep thought, aware enough of his surroundings to notice a lovely family, the family he knew he deserved.
The clock started ticking and Jerry had a big to-do list ahead of him; quitting the real estate brokerage firm, using the nine-to-five free hours of the day to go scouting for a new city, applying for a new job, changing his physical appearance, and starting making personal connections in the new community so immediately after the old family was no more he could easily move to the new one.
Jerry was a dangerous and selfish chameleon and nothing would stop his unattainable obsession with perfection, not in the past, not in the present, not in the future.
If I were to choose something remotely close to a moral of the story it would be this: It does not matter how much you dislike your current family and your current life, at least you can rest assured in the knowledge that you are not a psychopath and instead are a sane, law-abiding citizen with baseline moral values that politely tell you to shut up & suck it up like a well-adjusted adult. Don’t be a Jerry. Don’t be a disappointment. #life #dobetter
In Love and Fear,
-Marath
© 2016-2021