The People Under the Stairs [HD]

Funny, Over-The-Top Horror
I've always gotten a kick out of this movie. The story line is original (or at least it seems so to me). The gore is startling in a couple of scenes but isn't overpowering. The acting is outrageously over the top but also is endearing.

Thirteen-year-old Fool (Brandon Ames) finds himself in a large suburban house owned by the two slum lords who are about to evict his sick mother and others from a ghetto tenement. He's in the house because he agreed to help two burglars make a score on treasure they heard was hidden there. Unfortunately for Fool (and his two grown-up accomplices), the owners are a brother and sister who call each other Mommy and Daddy. The man (Everett McGill) is a homicidal maniac who goes in for head-to-toe, studded, black leather bondage suits and pump action, single barrel shotguns. His sister (Wendy Robie) is just as looney and just as murderous, a screaming dominatrix. They also have a large vicious dog you wouldn't want to hand feed...that is, unless...

This movie is not cliched
An earlier review I read of this movie seems to be horribly off. It mentions that it follows a horror-movie cliche where the cops are offered food and then give up the search.

However, this reviewer is dead wrong on several accounts. One, they are not policemen at all, but rather are child services. Two, the horror movie cliche would be having the policemen not believe the little boy crying wolf. Three, instead of following cliches, this movie instead turns around and breaks all of the cliches.

Instead of being afraid, only being able to scream, and seemingly always frozen in place, Fool instead doesn't ever really scream, either runs away or TURNS AROUND, FED UP, AND ATTACKS THE VILLAINS HIMSELF. At one point, he turns around, says "I'm through running" and tackles a man-eating dog that is bigger than him.

Is a character who isn't afraid of the villains, a character who fights back, a cliche? No.

This movie was hilarious, captivating, and...

"Damn Buckshot!"
I got a real kick out of some of the previous reviews treating "People Under the Stairs" as a serious horror film! The thing with this odd movie is that it should be awful...the premise is just so goofy, but somehow things just click and it's just too damn fun! If you like horror-humor, along the lines of the second two Evil Dead films or Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, then you will enjoy "People Under the Stairs". You can't treat this film seriously, if you go into this movie expecting to be scared or frightened you are going to be sorely disappointed. There really are no tense scenes, and anytime the film approaches anything the may be deemed as frightening, something so absurd will happen that you will be smiling immediately. This movie is quite a bit of fun, just don't take it too seriously.

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