Halloween guilty pleasures

“The Stepfather” (1987)

Were the filmmakers trying to be funny when they made this over-the-top domestic thriller, or did it just turn out that way? It’s hard to tell, but one thing’s for sure: Terry O’Quinn (of “Lost” fame) is unforgettable as the blithely evil title villain, who marries well-heeled single moms (including a very vapid Shelley Hack, of “Charlie’s Angels” semi-fame), then schemes to bump them off. O’Quinn makes what could have been a forgettable formula piece into a camp classic, and a pretty dead-on parody of Reagan-era suburbia, too.

—Andy Hermann, Producer, Metromix