Parents' Guide to The Stepfather

The best thing about The Stepfather remake is still the central idea about a man trying to make the perfect family via a very unusual methodology. The second best is Walsh's performance, which veers between bland affability and ice-cold fury at the flick of a switch. Director Nelson McCormick (who previously remade another '80s chiller, Prom Night, far less notably) at least knows when to get out of the way of the story and his star and let them do the work.

Unfortunately, McCormick tries to have it both ways by keeping the scares in The Stepfather low-key and predictable (for example, Michael's younger siblings are ushered off-stage for thefilm's climax, kept ata distance from the peril and bloodshed) -- as if he were hedging his own bets. Badgley and co-star Amber Heard make a nice duo of slow-to-doubt teens, and Ward anchors the film with an optimism that turns to concern as the facade of her fiancee's perfection crumbles in the light of the facts. The Stepfather isn't incompetent, grimly clueless, or actively bad -- it's just unnecessary and more than a little unimpressive in the unique light of the original.