The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Directed by Wes Craven
Starring Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A. J. Langer, Ving Rhames, and Sean Whalen.
A little boy everyone calls Fool lives in a rundown apartment with his family. His mother is sick and they are about to be evicted. His sister’s boyfriend, Leroy, offers to help Fool make their rent money. He takes him under his wing and tries to teach him about burglary, starting with the house of Fool’s landlords. The Robenson’s are wealthy from generations of family ventures and shady business practices. Leroy, his partner Spencer, and Fool case the home. After Spencer gets in as a gas company worker, Leroy gets suspicious of the time he is taking. Fool and Leroy break in to find the house is filled with locked cupboards, spooky noises, and no sign of their rumored fortune. But when the Robenson’s come home, they will find that there are worse things than getting caught stealing. Fool and Leroy are hunted by the family and pursued by a strange person living inside the walls. When Fool gets to the basement, he will meet the Robenson’s greatest secret. There are people living in their basement and what they look like does not bode well for Fool.
Bill Cobbs and Ving Rhames have some minor roles that they fill quite nicely. Rhames especially does well with Leroy, Fool’s less than altruistic mentor. The duo of Man and Woman are played frighteningly over the top by Everett McGill and Wendy Robie respectively. They both commit to the characters and their insanity, bringing them close to being a caricature without quite going there. Brandon Adams and A.J. Langer are the real treasures of the movie. They have the most screen time and waste a minute of it.
The scares are surprising and potent. The horror does not just come from the stakes of Fool’s robbery; it also comes from the implications of the Robenson’s activities. They keep a basement full of cannibalistic feral boys that have “had the bad parts cut out”. They destroy families financially and horde the money. They act like a married couple but are very much siblings. This is a family like the one from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but with the power and invulnerability that wealth can buy.
The little artistic choices are enjoyable as well. The Robenson man does not just hunt intruders; he hunts them in a bondage suit. There is a fine layer of dust on nearly every surface of the house. The only place with any kind of color is Alice’s room. And most of the movie takes place during the day, with light pouring in from every window. It means that Craven has less chance to hide things in darkness, so all that is shown has to be good.
As far as Craven films go, The People Under the Stairs is one his betters ones. It is not anything close to his Elm Street films, but it is far better than Shocker or Vampire in Brooklyn. Give it a try and you will not be disappointed.
8 out of 10
