Cravens Identity Issues: Slapstick/Brutal Violence Soup.

I've always regarded Wes Craven, as many have, as one of the horror greats, notably for his brilliant exploitation efforts Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes and his entries in the Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series. However, his lesser known films, such as this one, have always provided be with at least entertainment, and even his very mediocre Shocker had some redeeming value. The People Under The Stairs has gained much contradicting criticism and praise making it possibly a love, I should say like-it-or-hate it affair. I fall into the former group, as I found this film to be a highly entertaining, well written, and fairly inventive piece of horror cinema.

The film revolves around the ambitions thirteen-year-old, nicknamed 'Fool.' Unfortunately his mother has cancer that must receive operations they cannot afford, and their landlords threaten to evict them from their home in the ghetto. A friend of Fool's sister, Leroy decides to help out and with a burglar friend of his and Fool as an assistant, breaks into the wacko landlords' home in an attempt to steal a gold coin collection he has discovered to be in the house. Little did he expect what was to come when the house is found out to be an inescapable death wish, complete with mysterious passages throughout the walls, booby-traps and creepy disfigured 'people under the stairs.'

Not by any stretch of the imagination an incredible story, however Craven executes it with high style, and wonderful pacing, plus a clever and funny script that provides enough one-liners to please fans of horror-comedies. Many of these lines come from Leroy, played by Ving Rhames, who nicely overacts, making his character a riot. Other characters are also well-written, such as the impressionable Fool, deprived and abused Alice, and psychos "Mommy" and "Daddy" as they call each other. They are an absurd, memorable bunch, that rank up there as one of the strangest family's put to film. Daddy puts on an awfully strange, black leather protective body suit a couple of times throughout the film, with no motivation or purpose explained. He also seems a sort of schizophrenic, one minute ripping apart and eating a human, and the next dancing in joy. His complete inconsistency makes him all the more interesting, even if it may have just been some careless writing on the part of Mr. Craven. "Mommy" is Margaret White part 2, just without all the crosses. She abuses her daughter, Alice, depriving her from anything 'evil,' which according to her, is basically anything. Their dog prince Prince ends up an uber Cujo, sent into the corridors into the wall to kill Fool and co., but a less effective one as his attacks rarely leave a mark.

The people under the stairs themselves are given an okay, although underwhelming story, which I won't spoil here. The main under-stair-dweller, Roach, seems straight out of Neverland and that took away from his appearances. The other's looks very different, but not exceptional - I was definitely not into the long rock star hair dues, and very basic costumes. But they do provide some great sound effects throughout the film, which provides somewhat of an unsettling atmosphere. The conclusion of them, as well as the whole film is very lackluster, becoming incredibly cheesy and 'happy.' The people under the stairs didn't end up being the frightening evil creatures the title seems to make them, and that's somewhat disappointing. However, by the end I was rooting for Fool in some ways, so it was somewhat pleasing to see him gain some allies. Although I could have done without the "Fooooooool" cries.

Underneath all the weirdness are some decent themes, that are rarely seen in horror films. The unfairness of elitism is shown, and some racism issues are brought up, but they are not developed enough to really note as an important part of the film. It does make a strong addition to the good versus evil idea, which nearly every horror movie does. I wanted the bad guys to die, and the good guys to survive and save the day, which is a hard thing to do in horror, but Craven seems to achieve it all the time. His film's rarely make you like the villain as countless other horror films do. He even successfully returned Freddy to scary in his final Nightmare installment, a seemingly impossible task after the joke he became in parts 4, 5, and especially 6.

Overall, The People Under The Stairs is at times a sharply written, hysterical, and frightening experience, but at others it's the complete opposite. The characters are memorable, if not very predictable and implausible, but in a horror movie, who cares about that! Craven finds will more than likely find something to enjoy with this addition to his resume, while many others will find not a single redeeming value in what they will call this boring, plot less, and unoriginal attempt at recreating the evil of his prior films. I enjoyed it a bit, and would like to add the new DVD release to my collection, especially with Halloween right around the corner.

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