PEOPLE UNDER
THE STAIRS
CAST
Everitt Mcgill, Ving
Rhames, A.J. Langer
DIRECTOR
Wes Craven
YEAR OF
RELEASE
1991
Wes
Craven's People Under the Stairs is another
example of an attempt at social commentary in
horror that failed miserably. It's about the
coldness of capitalism and how the
non-feeling white people smash the
good-natured poor black people through
consolidating the ghetto- a rubbish theme if
I might do some social commentary myself. The
movie itself has good production values,
medium gore and a stupid, Army of
Darkness-esque humor. The story is about
Fool, a poor black kid who's mom is dying of
cancer, and who just got evicted by two evil,
white man & wife landlords. Ving Rhames is a
fellow ghetto-dweller who convinces 13 year
old Fool to rob the landlords- seeing as they
deserve it, and they have rare gold coins
hidden in their basement. But that's not all
they have hidden in thier basement... A.J.
Langer of My So Called Life plays the
daughter to the couple- Alice, who has never
gone outside. The couple themselves, who are
infact brother and sister, are zany. The man
has a wacky S&M outfit he wears when going
"hunting" for the people under the stairs who
get loose in the walls of his mansion. The
woman is that chick from "Mommy Dearest"
("you kids will be the death of me" in a
glossy stare). The whole thing is alright but
awful slow, and elements are not explored to
their fullest- one robber is just shown dead
after being scared to death, and Fool's
interest in tarot cards appears sparsely
throughout. You know, Wes Craven's movies
(aside from Nightmare on Elm Street) tend to
be kind of slow. This one's ending is
predictable and dumb. Overall I would say
skip this one- maybe rent it if you've seen
everything else in the horror section at your
video store- or of course if you hate white
people.
SHOCK/SUSPENSE
2
GORE
3
CAMP
3
OVERALL
2
