people under the stairs

Wes Craven has the sort of name recognition other director’s dream about. But for a man with 29 projects on his resume he’s a curiously generic filmmaker. Much like Ron Howard, Craven seems to adapt to the demands of whatever movie is next on the docket. While that’s certainly not a bad thing, it’s out of character in the horror genre, which seems to produce low-budget auteurs on a fairly regular basis.

But it’s actually the selling point for The People Under the Stairs, the second film in Craven’s two-picture deal with Alive Films that gave him complete creative control and a chance to recapture his mojo between the two franchises that would cement his reputation: Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.

Fool (Brandon Adams) is fighting a losing battle for a normal childhood in the LA ghetto. His mother is dying of cancer, his sister is turning tricks on the street, and her boyfriend/pimp (Ving Rhames) is planning a burglary that calls for a kid just his size. The target is their heartless landlord and his wife (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie of Twin Peaks), whose home is an impregnable fortress protected by booby traps, a vicious dog and…something else.

Once inside, the duo discover a teenage daughter kept under lock and key, along with a menagerie of underfed monsters living in the basement. But the most dangerous home defense is the owners themselves, a pair of dangerously demented sexual sadomasochists. That’s right; believe it or not, Pulp Fiction isn’t the first film Ving Rhames co-starred with someone in a gimp outfit!

The People Under the Stairs is wonderfully “off in so many ways that it rises above its flaws as a horror film (which it really isn’t) to become an awkward collage of Blaxploitation, gross-out comedy and clumsy political commentary. On the surface, the film fits nicely into Craven’s catalogue of mentally defective family units (Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes), but telling the story from the perspective of a 10-year-old boy changes the experience considerably. And Craven goes even further out on a limb but giving the action an Evil Dead 2 sense of humor punctuated with crowd-pleasing punchlines and a feel-good ending.

If the movie weren’t so bug-nuts crazy most fans would probably condemn it as the most tone-deaf creation of the director’s career (his “jive” dialogue only barely squeaks by without setting off racist alarms). But even the most memorable failures remain memorable for a reason. And The People Under the Stairs takes so many chances that one can’t help but admire its effort to keep audience’s guessing.

Released as a Collector’s Edition from Scream Factory, the hi-def transfer lacks a bit of the spit and polish one has come to expect from other niche labels, but there are extras to the moon and back. The always well-spoken director contributes a stellar commentary that’s paired with a second track with members of the cast. On-camera interviews with Wendy Robie, the KNB effects team, DP Sandi Sissel and composer Don Peake are all well-produced and average around 20-minutes a piece. Some raw behind-the-scenes footage and advertising material (trailers, TV spots) complete the package.