Poindexter 'Fool' Williams (Brandon Quintin Adams) is a kid from a poor black neighbourhood with a terminally ill mother and whose family are facing imminent eviction from their run-down apartment. His mother's disease is operable, but they do not have the funds to pay for her treatment, nor can they afford the extortionate rent set by their greedy landlords the Robesons (Twin Peaks' Wendy Robie and Everett McGill). Fool's criminal 'friend' Leroy (Ving Rhames) suggest that they break into the Robesons rich suburban home to steal the store of loot rumoured to be hoarded somewhere in the house. Once inside, they find themselves facing angry dogs and a bunch of cannibalistic freaks in the basement.
Although packaged and labelled as a horror and helmed by genre legend Wes Craven, The People Under the Stairs feels more akin to a boy's adventure movie, specifically those that emerged in the 1980's with children as their protagonists. The tone is often light-hearted and playful, with Fool playing the role of terrified but gadget-savvy child. Adams thankfully keep the levels of precociousness to a minimum, so we can cheer him on while he dodges the shotgun blasts from the insane Robesons, who refer to each other as Mommy and Daddy while they are actually brother and sister. They keep their only daughter Alice (A.J. Langer) under a strict, watchful eye, so she proves to be valuable to asset to Fool once he befriends her.
The lurking creatures under the stairs scowl and grab but do little else. Anyone hoping for a twisted, incestuous gore-fest like the title and presence of the director's name may suggest will be disappointed, for this is relatively mild stuff for the most part, and it does feel like an opportunity was missed somewhat. The 100 minute running-time drags towards the end, with various false climaxes stretching the patience. But for the most part, this is entertaining fluff, with Craven managing to squeeze some excitement out of every tiny crevice of the setting, and there's even a bit of social commentary in there somewhere.
So, OK; It's another Messiah story! These films are so overly present in the history of science-fiction/fantasy films. Even in the last decade or so we have seen these films being constantly produced (see The Matrix (1999) or Avatar (2009) as just two recent examples). It's the narrative of a young man, who progresses through a story to become the legendary myth of a person embodied as the saviour for an entire race, universe, galaxy... However, if we move back to 1984, the Hollywood film industry was still trying to capture that cash-cow essence of Star Wars (1977) and it's celebrated special effects, and it's fantasy setting. Therefore, any project that had space-ships, monsters etc were being made regardless of their relationship to the "kids" film. Dune, based on the epic and elaborate novel by Frank Herbert, is a very complex piece of cinema, that baffled many audience's and critics alike (I personally can't see that it is confusing at all). But then, if we look at the majority of the genre films made at the time, we can see how it could be see as perplexing next to the generic, simplistic stories being told. Inevitably, the film was a major flop, and with the $40 million budget, practically bankrupted 20th Century Fox, and also (thankfully) convinced director David Lynch to never work on a big budget, Hollywood-funded film again, and due to his contract with Dino De Laurentis, he was able to make his masterpiece, Blue Velvet (1986).
Dune is a narrative of warring planets, and the machinations of the politics that rule the galaxy. Dune is a desert planet that has never seen water, and on this planet is a substance called spice melange, that is the most important essence in this world. Whoever controls the spice controls the universe. The spice enables a means of travel without moving; it has the ability to fold space, and also expands consciousness. The main warring "houses" are of the Atriedes and the evil Harkonnens. Paul Atriedes (Kyle MacLachlan) is the son of Duke Leto (Jurgen Prochnow), and his mother Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis) who is a member of the Bene Gesserit, a race of women who are able to read minds and control the minds of others. With his royal connections, Paul is held in high regard. But as the story progresses it is clear that there is more to this boy that was first expected. After a conspiracy to create a war between the Atriedes and Harkonnens, Paul and his mother are left stranded on the planet Arrakis (also known as Dune), where the prophecy of the saviour and the dreams that Paul had been haunted by, comes to pass.
Whilst the films narrative complexities are difficult to concisely lay down the full story, the essence is very simple. It is incredible that Lynch's screenplay managed to deal with Herbert's book, which is incredibly sprawling, but he managed admirably. The sets and costumes for the film are incredible, and even today (and after seeing the films several times) I am amazed at the look of the film. The costumes and props are incredibly eclectic - we have iconography from all over the place: Victorian austerity, 1930's telecommunications items, Nazi-style uniforms, and elaborate baroque back-drops. OK, so many of the special effects are incredibly dated, and others seem to have been cobbled together at the last moments on a shoe-string budget, but this does not hinder the experience of the film. Produced at a time when complex genre films were simply not being made, it is a film to watch several times, which reveals more each time. It was a project that was always going to be difficult to produce, with two other notable directors being previously attached to the film (Ridley Scott and Alejandro Jodorowsky - wish the latter happened with the proposed cast of Salvador Dali and Orson Welles, and music by Pink Floyd), it's amazing the film was made at all, and I salute Lynch for an admirable, often visually beautiful, and delightfully complex film, that I love more each time I see it.
The film also has an incredible supporting cast (Brad Douriff, Jose Ferrer, Patrick Stewert, Max Von Sydow, Dean Stockwell, to name a few), and there are very Lynchian elements that delight me every time. I mean, where else in Hollywood genre cinema would you see the main villain of the piece, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillen) having his face injected with diseases by his personal doctor?
Although packaged and labelled as a horror and helmed by genre legend Wes Craven, The People Under the Stairs feels more akin to a boy's adventure movie, specifically those that emerged in the 1980's with children as their protagonists. The tone is often light-hearted and playful, with Fool playing the role of terrified but gadget-savvy child. Adams thankfully keep the levels of precociousness to a minimum, so we can cheer him on while he dodges the shotgun blasts from the insane Robesons, who refer to each other as Mommy and Daddy while they are actually brother and sister. They keep their only daughter Alice (A.J. Langer) under a strict, watchful eye, so she proves to be valuable to asset to Fool once he befriends her.
