Daddy’s home...

How much do you really know about the people in your life? What you don’t know could kill you in the terrifying new thriller THE STEPFATHER.

When troubled teen Michael (Penn Badgley) returns home after a year at military school, he finds his mother, Susan (Sela Ward), in love and his soon-to-be stepfather, David (Dylan Walsh), has moved into their home. David says he wants them to become the perfect family. But as they get to know each other, Michael quickly becomes convinced that David himself is far from perfect.

Trying to verify what he knows of David’s past, Michael finds things that don’t add up. As strange events and David’s bursts of malevolence become more frequent, Michael tells his mother and girlfriend of his suspicions, but they just think he’s being paranoid. Eventually, as Michael searches for proof that his suspicions are well-founded, cracks begin to show in David’s perfect façade...and it becomes apparent he will stop at nothing to keep his secrets.

For David has a history of trying to create the perfect family. And each time, when it becomes apparent that perfection is impossible, David has a terrifying way of clearing the slate and starting over. As the film’s events rocket towards a shocking final confrontation, it’s up to Michael to protect his family from the evil that’s been awakened once more in David.

There’s lots of evil out there in the world. But in the end, nothing’s more frightening than the monster under your own roof...

Screen Gems presents THE STEPFATHER starring Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck), Sela Ward (Once & Again), Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl), Amber Heard (Pineapple Express), and Jon Tenney (The Closer), inspired by the classic 1987 thriller of the same name. Directed by Nelson McCormick (Prom Night) from a screenplay by JS Cardone, based on a screenplay by Donald E Westlake and a story by Carolyn Starin & Brian Garfield and Donald E Westlake, the film was produced by Mark Morgan and Greg Mooradian and executive produced by Meredith Zamsky, JS Cardone, Guy Oseary, Robert Green, and Julie Meldal-Johnsen. The talented behind-the-scenes crew includes director of photography Patrick Cady, production designer Steven Jordan, editor Eric L Beason ACE, and costume designer Lyn Paolo. The music is by Charlie Clouser and the music supervisor is Michael Friedman.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The Stepfather is an edge-of-your-seat popcorn thriller, a roller coaster ride the audience can enjoy in the comfort of a darkened theatre. But the story behind the new film (and its 1987 predecessor) is actually rooted in horrifying fact.

This reinvention of the film came about when producer Greg Mooradian was watching a Bravo television special on the 100 greatest horror movies ever made and saw that the original The Stepfather was included on the list. It was actually one of the few films mentioned he had not seen, but upon viewing it and talking with producing partner Mark Morgan, they felt it was ripe for being remade.

“The Stepfather is a remake,” says director Nelson McCormick, “but rather than invest ourselves in what the original did, we wanted to delve more into the characters. The original “Stepfather” was the story of a man who lived in New Jersey and decided he had to murder his family. He murdered his wife, his three teenage kids, and his mother, then moved to Colorado, assumed a new life, married, and changed his name. It wasn’t discovered until 18 years later that he was, in fact, the same man.

“We thought that was fascinating,” McCormick continues. “The character flaw, the tragic gene that pushed him to the edge - that’s what we focused on in this version of The Stepfather.”

With that in mind, the filmmakers began crafting their new stepfather: David Harris.

For The Stepfather, the words on the page are full of menace and the images they conjure are strong, but to actually bring the villain to life, the filmmakers turned to actor Dylan Walsh. Walsh and director McCormick had previously worked together on the award-winning show Nip/Tuck, and throughout his many seasons on that show, Walsh had gotten to show many sides to his acting talent. But McCormick knew there were untapped aspects of his talent he hadn’t yet been able to showcase and thought he’d be perfect for the role.

“Dylan has enormous talent, enormous chops,” McCormick says. “You didn’t often get a chance to see that on Nip/Tuck because it’s very defined who he has to be on that show. But there’s so much more to him. He’s so gifted at navigating himself through a scene.”

For his part, Walsh was thrilled to take on such a character. He knew creating Harris would be a huge challenge, but also a fascinating exercise, a thrilling acting experiment in walking a tightrope between believability and delicious evil. Together, Walsh and McCormick and the filmmakers worked on making the character terrifying, but always with one foot firmly rooted in reality, knowing the idea of a killer that could and did exist was much more frightening.

“Dylan and I spoke a lot about his character’s rationale for doing what he’s doing,” says McCormick. “Harris truly wants a family, and he’s deluding himself with this illusion that ‘If I have what appears to be a happy family, then happiness should follow.’ His logic is simply to find a woman with children that he can then graft himself onto and make a family work.”

In speaking of his character, Walsh says, “Imagine a guy who has an obsessive need to be at the head of a family with a kind of 1950s dynamic, where the father would be the king of his castle. Harris has such a need for that that he finds these vulnerable women, either widowed or divorced and they have kids, and he wants to come into that family and take over. He means well; he does good things for them, and he’s empowered by doing good things.

“The problem is,” he continues, “there’s a clash between this 1950s king of the castle idea and the way families are now. I’m a father, so I know it’s much less a king of the castle thing. We’ve moved on, progressed, and there’s a give and take - nobody’s the captain. It’s complicated and there are grey areas you have to navigate and finesse, and it’s harder work. And this clash of these two dynamics makes this guy crazy. He’s a control freak, and when he loses control, his way of dealing with it is to kill the family.”

“He jumps to the ultimate conclusion,” adds McCormick, “which is to kill them, then start over again in the next town or next life.”

A serial killer is scary enough, but the fact that Harris is a soon-to-be stepfather adds another layer of horror to the story. Being a stepfather, says Walsh, “is such a common thing. More and more families are patched together - stepfathers, stepmothers, kids from different marriages. You’re bringing somebody into a very intimate family situation. And the movie plays with that, the fear of ‘Who is this person I’m bringing into my closed circle?’”

As mentioned, Walsh found himself walking an acting tightrope. He has to play Harris “normal enough” to pass as normal to the other characters, but evil enough that the audience enjoys watching him try to hide it.

“It’s not a whodunit. We know who done it,” Walsh laughs. “It’s more about watching something unfold and the cringing tension you feel in the audience as this unsuspecting family takes in a man who has just killed his own family. It’s about ‘How is this going to play out? Who’s going to be a hero? Where is Harris going to trip up?’ That’s what’s interesting.”

McCormick adds, “One of the things that was brilliant about the original film was its opening, and we embraced that. The idea of telling the audience right from the beginning that our main character is, in fact, a murderer was something we wanted to open with. It’s stunning to watch a man get up and go through his morning routine while there are dead bodies lying around that he murdered the night before.

“As far as characters go, you won’t get anybody more complex,” continues Walsh. “To look at him, he should seem harmless. And if you don’t achieve that, then the second thing [his murderous side] won’t work. And if you can’t go to the second thing, you don’t have a thriller. I was aware of that and tried not to think about it too much, to just let it happen.”

Of Walsh, McCormick says, “It’s a careful performance Dylan creates in this film because it has to be one that you can then rewind and look at a second time and say, ‘Oh, my gosh. He was totally crazy and they just didn’t see it.’ But going through it the first time, you can also see how they were blind to it because he is charming. He’s a gentleman.”

Ultimately, Walsh says, “I’ve had more fun with this than anything in a long, long time.”

With such a diabolical villain, a film also needs a strong hero, and in The Stepfather, the hero is embodied by accomplished young actor - and handsome heartthrob - Penn Badgley. Badgley, famous for his role on the breakout hit Gossip Girl, was eager to take on the role of David Harris’ intended stepson Michael, setting aside Upper East Side drama for a taste of suburban thriller.

One of the things Badgley found most interesting about The Stepfather was the fact that - as Walsh mentioned - the murderer is never an unknown. “You know from the beginning he’s a killer,” he says. “This family that at one point was shattered, they’ve rebuilt themselves with this guy - but he’s clearly a bad egg. The tension and the thrills come from dread, waiting for things to play out. It’s not the kind of tension people are used to, which makes it really enjoyable...and scary.”

“Waiting is a big part of making these films work,” adds McCormick. “It’s the slow twisting of the knot that builds tension you can feel in your gut. It’s both satisfying and painful at the same time to watch as an audience member - that’s what makes these films fun. It just gets tighter and tighter until the very end. Before long, you’re one of the family members just trying to survive. That’s how it feels. That’s how invested you get in these characters.”

“The audience is always in the know,” he continues, “and the characters are just flying by the seat of their pants. My character, Michael, in that sense, is like the audience’s eyes and ears - he’s seeing the most, he’s hearing the most.”

Badgley found Michael’s predicament fun to play. Michael is a young man convinced of his soon-to-be stepfather’s villainy...only no one will believe him. “David seems to be the perfect man...except that he’s a serial killer,” Badgley laughs. “At first, David tries very hard to win Michael over. But he’s obviously a bit off, and Michael sees that, so he feels alienated in his own home.” Rooting for Michael and what he’s up against gives the audience someone to identify with...and root for.

And there are no easy answers for the situation in which Michael finds himself - he can’t even necessarily trust his own thoughts. “It’s very strange for him,” says Badgley. “Everyone’s against him; they just think he’s paranoid. And he doesn’t really want to tell anybody, because it does seem crazy for someone to think their stepfather is a murderer. Even when it starts to seem pretty convincing, Michael, as convinced as he may be, is like, ‘Yeah...but this is nuts.’”

Badgley echoes the filmmakers when he speaks of wanting to root the work in reality. “We did rehearsals beforehand and were trying to instil as much depth in it as possible,” he says. “A line we’d use was, ‘Hopefully this would be a good movie even without the killing.’ Even without the tension of David being a serial killer, it’s a family trying to build itself again and there’s a tense, awkward relationship between the oldest son and the stepfather.”

Michael hates his stepfather in the film, but Badgley himself really enjoyed working with co-star Walsh, though the two kept a bit of distance to lend a wariness to their portrayals. “He was very quiet at first, and I am too, so we didn’t really talk much,” Badgley says. “But he was very committed and passionate and was dealing with a hard role.”

The young actor also marvelled at Walsh’s transformation into “evil stepfather.” “He’s got this grimace,” he says, “this scowl his face just settles into. I don’t know how he does it - his mouth just turns down and his cheeks sag and he looks around with this killer stare. It’s really scary.”

Of his co-star, Walsh has high praise. “Penn is a very contemplative guy,” he says. “He’s articulate, and for as young as he is, he has a maturity. He’s a very smart guy. I really like his demeanour - he works hard, and he’s quietly funny.”

Just as Walsh and Badgley’s performances in The Stepfather are departures from what most audiences have seen them do, Sela Ward’s turn as Michael’s mother, Susan, is a full leap into unexplored territory. In fact, the actress readily admits she doesn’t usually like the genre at all.

“I don't watch these movies because they just scare me to death,” she laughs. “But in remembering Hitchcock films when I was young, they were always so interesting and suspenseful. My best hope was that this would be equivalent in some way, and I think it’s very much Hitchcockian. It's shot really well, very stylized, and it's very suspenseful. You're waiting any moment for the other shoe to drop, and that's always really fun.”

Of her decision to join the cast, Ward says she remembers sitting down with director McCormick. “I'd already read the script, and I love Dylan Walsh and knew Penn Badgley - I knew I'd be surrounded by good actors. I said, ‘Nelson, I'll only do this if you promise you'll protect me, because I'm not used to screaming at rubber knives.’ It's hard to react to a rubber knife and screaming is not my forte. I come from that whole relationship world of dialogue, so it was really a challenge.

“The hardest thing for me,” she continues, “was to really go for screaming bloody murder. You're afraid you're going to be so over the top. I would never have known how tricky this was - you cannot underestimate acting this kind of material. What I, on the page, would think is a piece of cake, the reality is that I struggled with it, to really bring that fear. This is so heightened in its reality that it's a fine line to make it truthful, and that's been the biggest surprise, being able to show terror and fear in a convincing way. It's been a great learning experience. You hope you can pull it off as real as possible, and the story is such that I think you're able to do that.”