Director: Wes Craven
Starring: A.J. Langer, Sean Whalen, Ving Rhames, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, Brandon Adams, Bill Cobbs.
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 97 minutes
Synopsis: Desperate crooks from a housing project decide to punish the nearby owners of the building by breaking into their home and robbing them. What they discover means they will never be allowed to leave alive!
Extras: High Definition digital transfer of the film by Universal Pictures. Original uncompressed Stereo 2.0 audio. Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Audio commentary with star Brandon Quintin Adams, moderated by Calum Waddell. Fear, Freud and Class Warfare: Director Wes Craven Discusses the Timely Terrors of The People Under the Stairs. Behind Closed Doors: Leading Lady A.J. Langer Remembers The People Under the Stairs. Silent But Deadly: Co-Star Sean Whalen on The People Under the Stairs. Underneath the Floorboards: Jeffrey Reddick, creator of The Final Destination series, recalls the lasting impact of The People Under the Stairs. Original Trailer. Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Stephen R. Bissette. Collectors booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills
Horrormeister Wes Craven’s underrated gem THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS finally makes its long-awaited Blu-ray debut in another super package from Arrow Films. The suspenseful shocker is easily Craven’s finest film following his iconic frightener A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and satirical slasher SCREAM. However, it’s an altogether different look at the dysfunctional family unit and features the director’s often notable social commentary, giving a twisted look at the class system and what some might call “the American Dream”.
The 1991 film is one Craven often describes as the close of his trilogy that first began with his controversial thriller LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and followed a little later by cannibal classic THE HILLS HAVE EYES. Where those efforts showcase the primal urges of a kindred dynamic, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS offers to take you behind closed doors of a seemingly hardworking family. Of course, on the surface, things are not at all what they seem and we soon discover their dark “skeletons in the closet.”
Like NIGHTMARE, it’s another film which Craven claims was inspired by both a newspaper article he read exploring a shocking real-life crime, as well as his own vivid dreams and imagination. A struggling Black neighbourhood sees two of their petty criminals coerce a young teen (Brandon Adams) into helping burglarise the owners of their rundown housing project. Tapping in to most fears of home-invasion, we’re initially reluctant to have any sympathy for such desperate crooks (and some may believe it’s just deserts) but what follows is a terrifically suspenseful chase thriller as the appropriately-named young ‘Fool’, finds out what horrors can lurk beneath the surface of these ordinary well-to-do folk.
Everett McGill and Wendy Robie are absolutely terrific as the couple hiding a terrible secret in search of the perfect child and if you’ve seen the film before you’ll know just how far that incestuous relationship goes. McGill is especially gleeful when going ‘gimp’ and toting a powerful pump-action shot gun, while Robie’s demented, domesticated housewife continues to push and punish her poor ‘daughter’ Alice (Langer). However, it’s perhaps the bane of their lives, Roach (an ace Sean Whalen), who’s most memorable as the tortured young simple-minded soul skitting between the walls like a wounded rat as one the escaped victims of the title. He, along with Langer’s young Alice, is where most of our affinity must lay.
As stated, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS is effectively a chase film as Fool must manoeuvre his way through the never-ending series of walls, tunnels and vents to assure his escape from this hidden house of horror, with a little help coming from Roach and Alice. Some absolutely superb production design make sure the house is creepily hollowed out and perfectly expanded to allow this wretched family to hide in plain sight.
It’s most definitely a film right up there with Craven’s best and the special features included on this remastered edition see Craven, Langer and Whalen passionately speak about working on the film. Also, the gloriously eerie new cover art is another highlight.
THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS is released on Blu-ray from the 4th November via Arrow Video.
