Let me begin by saying I regard myself as a good person, but oh my god, am I glad this woman is dead!
Hi, hello there! How are you? How is everything? You good? Me? I cannot complain at all, this past month was super chill due to my making the conscious decision of not relying so much on technology and the internet. Was it a perfect experiment? No, it was not, but at least it was a nice wake-up call and got it out of my system. Mmmh, what else? I went to see Scream (1996) on the big screen and it was as amazing as any horror fan would have expected it. Mmmh, what else, what else? Next month I go to my first post-covid concert and I am ready for it, a little nervous too because it is a festival (Knotfest Los Angeles 2021) with thousands of people. Enough messing around, we are here for a reason so let’s talk horror movies, shall we?
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
A few posts ago I shared with you how much I enjoyed watching The Stepfather (1987) because it gave us insight into the reasoning behind the bad guy’s actions, well, needless to say I was both excited and afraid for part two because, yes, please give me more Jerry Blake, but also no, please do not ruin the perfection that was part one. My final verdict after watching Stepfather II: Make Room for Daddy (1989) was 3.5/10 as it had good intentions with expanding the tormented villain’s journey, but there were several instances where the story did not land in the realm of possibility so it took me out of the very real situation that was a middle-aged man trying to infiltrate himself into a broken home to fulfill a yearning for belonging to a loving [and picture-perfect] family.
Even though I would not recommend watching part two if you truly enjoyed part one, I decided to talk about it here with you because the movie still had a few cool things plus a new character—the nosy woman friend—whose well-deserved death was so satisfying to watch, like, it actually made me happy (!?) which was awesome in my opinion (I’m a good person, I swear).
Part one ended with a defeated and badly wounded Jerry, with his plans of “ending” his relationship with the mother and daughter from Washington State foiled. Part two started with Jerry locked up in a mental institution for the criminally insane. As it was expected of him, he adapted quickly to his new role and surroundings, was the perfect inmate/patient, and gained the trust of his new psychiatrist which of course allowed him to get, no, scratch that, take what he wanted back… his freedom.
So he escapes out of the prison/hospital, kills when he needs anything of value, makes his way down to Southern California, changes his appearance, rents a home in an elegant neighborhood, decides to make a living as a family therapist (replicates his deceased doctor’s mannerisms), and overall moves on with his life.
And since Jerry cannot be a happy Jerry without a partner, he does the whole video dating thing (gotta love the 80’s!) and the female options utterly disappoint him, nay, disgust him? What can I say, I myself felt bad for the ladies as they showed up, one by one, on the vhs tape because I could tell right away that none of them were Jerry material as they were all imperfect. Luckily for Jerry, the perfect woman was right there at his fingertips, living next door to him and attending his group therapy (did I say she was also the realtor who helped him lease the house, and who happened to be separated from her husband?), her name was Carol Grayland and did not stand a chance against his charm.
Beautiful and successful Carol Grayland had a young son, Todd Grayland, and he gave Jerry the opportunity to practice his all-American fatherly values and, quite honestly, I was there for it as it was nice seeing Jerry being the normal person we know and love.
Now, things would have stayed great with Jerry’s new bride-to-be & future stepson, and with his enviable home & new private practice (do I really need to use quotation marks on that last part?), had it not been for the nosy woman friend whose name is not important at this time. Needless to say, when Jerry identified her as a threat he got rid of her, however, it ended up being too late as she had already planted the seed of suspicion in Carol’s head. Everything was ruined. Sigh.
Also, one of the many things that annoyed me about her was that she was a disgrace to the U.S. Postal Service as she misused her privileges as a public servant (worked as a mail carrier) to go over Jerry’s mail and stick her nose where it didn’t belong. [Side note: The character must have reminded me of someone in my real life because she really did upset me, so I guess the question from me to me is, who do I know who was equal parts nosy and negligent at her job and who had it in for me? Damn, this thought is going to keep me up all night.]
Anyway, let’s pretend that the nosy woman friend never existed and that our beloved Jerry actually ended up marrying Carol and lived happily ever after (I said let’s pretend, damn it!):
In Love and Fear,
-Marath
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