Rating: Summary: Bizzare film, Adams family meets the hood. Review: Boy was this film weird. I believe the storyline was written by Clive Barker and of course hes wierd in his right mind. Of course you can tell the style of the movie was of course directed by Wes Craven himself. Wes is hard to describe but his movies hit and miss. He's never conistant on what he does with films because sometimes his movies really stink (ie. Wes Craven's new nightmare, and whole slew of others that simply blow) and sometimes he really makes good movies like this one and nightmare on elm street 1 and Scream 1 wasn't bad. You can tell by his style but I like I said its hard to describe it but if you watched enough of his films you can easily point out "oh that looks like a Wes Craven film." Now about this film. Well I think other reviewers have pretty much done a good job summing up the films so I'll just point out good points and bad points of the film. Good points: Excellent visual effects and the way the house was made was simply fabulous for this type of film. The storyline was extremely creative for a horror film. The actors were pretty solid and overall feel gave you a great errie feeling. Lights camera work was solid too. Bad point: The only real bad point of the film was the ending was a little sloppy. The ending was real generic with people cheering and catching money in the air. With all the creativity in film you almost sat there thinking wow we havent seen this type of ending before. I guess Wes and Clive shocked us so much in the film the ending was almost a let down...
Rating: Summary: The best Wes Craven film, still with no DVD... in the U.S. Review: This is the last film Wes Craven made before he went on his pitiful and too unpersonal "Scream" series. And miracle, this is also his best film, and one of his most personal! It's a fine and hard mixing of the most repulsive 'gore' images we can see on the screen, and the funniest humor we can hear. And it's also a social and racial pamphlet. Like in "The last House on the Left" or "Hills have Eyes", Craven describes a family of degenerate people, actually a white couple who get rich by using the misery of the L.A. black ghetto, who steal babies (the movie could have been titled "Baby Snatchers") and feed themselves and also their ferocious dog with human flesh. If I add that the 'couple' is actually a brother and his sister, the last ones of a generation of definitely insane folks, then you'll see better what I'm talking about. About to be evicted with his mother and sister, a young black boy from the ghetto (Brandon Quintin Adams, seen before in "Moonwalker" with Michael Jackson) gets in their big house, looking for gold coins, and soon gets trapped in what is to be a real fortress and hell. Unceasingly chased by the crazy, savage man of the house, in his leather suit, he manages to escape thanks to the help of two kids among those who were kidnapped (especially a young, still fresh girl). But he'll come back to rescue her and all the others rotting under the stairs, along with a real treasure... millions of dollars, taken from the ghetto. For the first - and last? - time, Craven includes a social message in a personal work and this makes this movie much better and interesting to the others. This exercise is perfectly conducted from the beginning to the ending, the humor never misses, neither does the horror. Once again, the mixing is very successful. The artistic result is a total success, along with the casting, including the powerful and too rare Everett McGill ("Quest for Fire"), hilarious as the nutcase among all - BURN IN HELL! -, Ving Rhames, two years before "Pulp Fiction", and Alice J. Langer - as Alice -, the main actress in John Carpenter's "Escape from L.A.", four years later - remember, she's the President's rebel daughter. With "The People under the Stairs", we're not very far from a real masterpiece. Fellows, if you want the DVD, come to Paris...
Rating: Summary: Ed and Nadine? Review: Like everybody says, it's occasionally scary, but what makes People Under the Stairs stand out from other horror films of the late 80's and early 90's (a time at which horror movies were pretty low creatively) is the humor. Bleak humor, yes, but funny nonetheless. As a quick sidenote... few people remember this (or even knew it in the first place), but the casting of the movie itself was somewhat of an "in" joke at the time... the man and woman who play the parents (who, to the best of my memory, don't even have names) also played husband & wife Ed and Nadine Hurley on David Lynch's "Twin Peaks," which aired around the same time this movie was released. So yeah. If you like to laugh at your horror movies (and not because they're bad... because they're genuinely funny), or if you'd just like to see what Ed and Nadine were up to behind closed doors, check this movie out. Although, don't buy it from Amazon. Just go rent it. Cuz if I can get away with Amazon letting me publish that... that'd be cooler than Ed Hurley in S&M gear.
Rating: Summary: Fast-paced horror entertainment. Review: Brandon Adams is a child living on the slums who's trapped inside his evil landlords' house. Superior horror/thriller plays somewhat as a mix of satire and fairy tale, and it's also one of Wes Craven's best films, complete with lots of fast-paced thrills, suspense, and even some laughs. The house itself, an elaborate maze of traps and secret hallways, is an intregal part of the movie's success. A couple of silly moments and weak slapstick humor are the movie's only real cons.
Rating: Summary: Horror? No way! Funny? Defently Review: Okay people who call this a "True Horror Movie" are either 7 years old, or have lived in closets their whole lives... actually if they think this is a true horror movie they must have lived in disney land. Now this isn't to say this isn't a good movie, i mean after all it is a truely great peice of comedy, up there with Killer Klowns from Outer Space (of course KKFOS being the top). I can honestly tell you i didnt' find it at all scary, i thought the acting was moderatly cheesy, the main character was always refered to as 'foo' enough said. The main bad guy is a adult male father figure who runs around in S&M gear with a shotgun and releasing a superhuman dog, while meanwhile a small colony of former children with removed toungs, eyes, ears, ect live under the stairs, eating body parts of themselves or other people. The name of hte move is "The People Under The Stairs", just... just... think about that for a minute, what kind of a title is that even? I know this review seems negative, but i still gave it 4 stars cause it was a greatly humerous movie, but if you seriously want a horror movie, i woudl not recomend this, if you want comedy that isn't just some cookie-cutter mass produced comedy moive, defently get this.
Rating: Summary: Are You Scared...........Yet ? Review: Well if not you sure as helk will be when your done watching this "happy little story" of a close with family with many values and morals such as: Speak no evil hear no evil or your done (yea thats not a good thing). This is truely a master piece in the horror field its definetly my sisters 28 F and my 14 M favorite horror movie. You will not belive your eyes at what goes on inside this house. As the title says "In every neighborhood there is one house that the adults whisper about and the children across the street to avoid." Well you sure... found it :) Scared ? I thought so
Rating: Summary: People Under the Stairs, creepy as it looks: Review: This movie you are looking at is MOST CERTAINLY NOT your typical horror or slasher film. It is a mix of real horrors,dark comedy,and fairytale. When I got this movie my expectations were very high, and I was glad they weren't let down. I expected alot from this movie, I had heard it was VERY scary, and I'm into horror movies VERY MUCH!!! The bad reviews on here, don't listen to them, see the movie yourself!!! So Adam is a boy with his family living in some rundown tennant houses, his momma's dying of cancer. Well the kid hears about a treasure, locked up in the bottom of the basement of the house. The sad thing is no one ever comes out of this house alive, and unfortenately for him its not just a myth its the truth!!! Getting in may be a pain, but getting out is 10x's the fun!!! "Hear no evil,speak no evil,and see no evil" is a saying of the mother. Which holds to secret of the basement inhabitants. There is a girl hidden upstairs though, and is violently abused. The scenes where she is abused truely terrified me, my friend was asking what was wrong with me. Abusive scenes always get me like that. Violent abuse, and I mean angry abuse. And on top of those ingredients there is a man running screaming through the house shooting at the walls in a black&spiked leather suite. The acting is wonderfull, especially for those playing the parents, they play the rules perfectly and make them two truely terrifying characters to see on flm!!! This is maybe an uneven film, but it is still one of the best horror movies I've come across. A good story, good acting, a happy ending, and terrifying scenes. If that isn't what a horror movie is supposed to be(not neccisarily the good ending part), then I don't know WHAT ONE IS!!!! God Bless ~Amy
Rating: Summary: The People Under the Stairs Review: This movie was awesome! Prince scared me so much, but it was sad to see him die:( This is defenintily my favorite horror movie. 2 thumbs up, Wes!
Rating: Summary: Bad isn't a suitable word for this movie!!!!!!!!!!! Review: There is a thin line between horrible and just downright stupid, and this movie crosses that line. This movie is undoubtedly the stupidest movie I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing in my life. I can't believe someone like Wes Craven would even want his name connected with a movie this terrible but, what's worse is that he directed it. I thought this movie was going to be so much more, and I was let down.
Rating: Summary: Wes Craven Is At It Again Review: Wes Craven once again proves he is one of the best horror director's in history. By making this one. This movie has a lot of action in it, and a lot of gore. The two people who own the house, make it creepy. Especially when the man runs around the house with his shotgun. The people under the stairs were the best part of the movie. They were cannibals with their tongues cut off, and they needed to survive. This movie is worth renting for any true horror fan. Especially a Wes Craven fan.
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