The Stepdaughter

not a great film by any stretch of imagination but also not the worse of this B movie thriller genre (what? no Billy R. Moses?).I thought the villainess was passably convincing and compelling and I absolutely rooted for her over the daughter-from-hell good daughter...I dont know if it was the acting or the role but she really really annoyed me. The actor playing the "slow" brother gave a performance that was insulting to special people everywhere (even in comparison to Cuba Gooding Jr and Sean Penn). I so wanted this to be a bad guy wins movie. The actress who played the mother wasnt bad..i know I have seen her but cant place her name right now

No pun intended - with movies like this one, you may not always know what you'll be getting. In this case, you have a movie that could be called decent. Not because it will surprise you (quite the opposite, this is as predictable as you can imagine - again no pun intended) ... but because it has some nice moments in it ... although nice may not be the right word to use for it ... because she is not playing nice (yes I know another pun - I live for them, like characters in movies like this one live for revenge ... or mayhem in general).

If you are into easy thrillers (or whatever you would call this very low budget effort) and do not care that much about acting and other things (quality of sets and video and so forth) ... you could do worse I reckon .. on the other hand, there are so many movies ... maybe you should not waste your time on something like this ... as I did.

The Stepdaughter? After watching this I am left wondering why it was even called that? Was there even a stepdaughter in it? Was Susan/Karen someone's stepdaughter?

But, on to the movie itself. It was interesting enough to keep you watching and wondering a little, but most of the time I spent groaning and rolling my eyes at the various plot holes and silliness. At times it is amazingly predictable, other times mildly suspenseful, but most times only slightly entertaining. My favorite cliches include the little "idiot" boy saving the day, the bumbling lawman, the good-looking big stud farm hand trying to force himself on her, and "I'm so crazy I talk to my doll". Then after all the buildup and clues start coming together... the payoff is very weak I felt.

I don't want to be all negative about any film, so I'll say that Andrea Roth does a good job as does Lisa Dean Ryan I thought. At least for what they had to work with.

4/10

A lot of these direct-to-video movies aren't always the greatest, because they obviously couldn't even make it to the theater. I have no clue why this wasn't in theaters. It wasn't all that bad. Andrea Roth and Lisa Dean Ryan were rather good, and the story was really great. I recommend this movie. I give The Stepdaughter a 7 out of 10. :)

While not a wholly original or fantastic movie, it is better than a lot of the other direct-to-video thrillers. Andrea Roth & Lisa Dean Ryan both do really well with their parts. If you can overlook the more predictable plot points, it is a descent movie to watch.