The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Juvenile burglars break into a house occupied by a brother and sister and their inbred children. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Wes Craven
Starring: Ving Rhames, Bill Cobbs, Everett McGill, Sean Whalen, Brandon Quintin Adams, Wendy Robie, A.J. Langer
Country: USA
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The People Under the Stairs belongs to 20 collections
1. Dysfunctional Family (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 2 stars)
2. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 12 stars)
3. Horror comedies (collaborative - 3 stars)
4. Onion AV Club: The New Cult Canon (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 29 stars)
5. Owned (BD) (public: bizarre_eye)
6. Incest (collaborative: moderated by Moribunny - 5 stars)
7. My DVD Collection (public: balseiros)
8. Moviedrome: Alex Cox (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 1 star)
9. Arrow Video (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess)
10. Black horror films (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 2 stars)
11. Stuart Wellington Recommends (collaborative: moderated by lexwhitfield - 1 star)
12. The Next Picture Show Podcast (collaborative: moderated by trippingly - 2 stars)
13. Edgar Wright's 1000 Favorite Movies (public: coldesser)
14. Horror (public: fruititself - 4 stars)
15. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson - 16 stars)
16. Edgar 256 (public: caffe)
17. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)
18. Horror (public: horrorjames - 4 stars)
19. #1 at the US Box Office (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 10 stars)
20. -Added to Watchlists (public: KasperL)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 6 |  |
Luna6ix | 78 66th |
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For every one of Craven's classics, there's a dud and a middle of the road movie. This one is of the middle of the road variety, it's got some interesting stuff, but it just didn't quite have the right magical recipe to blow it out of the park. All of the elements were there, but none of them excelled.
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| 4 |  |
juntakinte99 | 50 9th |
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Wes Craven should've killed this one, as his films (like Scream) can have cool scares in addition to keen social commentary. Here, the themes of Reagan/Bush era greed, racism, and gentrification are intriguing--especially as the villains get comeuppance for their crimes. But it goes off the rails with cartoonish caricatures & Idiot Ball plot holes. It's only memorable for being called "Funeral Home Alone" by Roger Ebert and inspiring Jordan Peele's brand. I commend it more than I enjoyed it.
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| 4 |  |
Jasongirl67 | 75 69th |
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Had a lotta fun with this kooky horror comedy But the villains were a bit too "cartoonish" for my taste Overall a good movie
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| 3 |  |
terrymac | 55 25th |
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A campy inversion of the home invasion format of which Craven had been a a pioneer. I think any attempt to have a serious message or satire was swamped in the general schlock and ludicrousness. Despite the general unevenness of the plot and tone, this is good fun. In particular, McGill seems to be having a great time playing a bona fide weirdo. The performances are okay (the wee kid is pretty good), the setting and premise reasonably effective. Not Craven's best, but not "Deadly Friend" bad.
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| 3 |  |
caiman | 55 18th |
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You've gotta give this movie some credit for its originality. But it's uneven, full of really absurd sequences, and just generally stupid as hell.
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| 2 |  |
eveelun | 55 14th |
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The film's wildly inconsistent tone bothers me. I don't mind fairy tales for adults per se (e.g. I loved Pan's Labyrinth), but the odd mixture of grotesque violence in one scene then goofy child-acting the next became irritating rather than endearing.
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| 2 |  |
twincinema | 90 92nd |
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I had originally watched this in a group setting years ago, and I really think it is better as a solo experience. I was able to lock into this film's groove. This hits my entire checklist of things I want from a horror film: fun, gory, actors from Twin Peaks, wild tonally, social commentary, and being a spiritual sequel to Home Alone. At one part, I was like "this is like a kid's horror film!" and then the next scene McGill was carving up a body.
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| 2 |  |
Vandelay1 | 60 63rd |
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Okay Movie
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| 2 |  |
hellboy76 | 67 58th |
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The film is ridiculous and fun. Loved the Twin Peaks reunion with McGill and Robie.
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| 2 |  |
TrixRabbi | 69 28th |
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Completely bizarre. Feels like it ought to be the type of plot in a Disney Channel Halloween special but mixed in with grotesque gore and gimp suits.
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| 1 |  |
chow25 | 69 53rd |
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Scary as hell if you're young. Good horror flick when you're old.
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| 1 |  |
TheDiceman | 50 35th |
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Good film.
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| 1 |  |
nilkynarfy | 80 78th |
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The very best Wes Craven movie. Entertaining, creepy, funny, charming. It could have done with some better acting, but it's still memorable and worth watching.
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| 1 |  |
Shmendrek | 3 61st |
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It's a wonderful horror-comedy film and it's entertaining for its entire duration. Granted, it's not a great movie. It suffers due to some amateurish acting and occasional pacing problems. The scene in which THE COMMUNITY shows up is horribly cliched and hokey, too hokey even for a movie like this. But come the fuck on, this movie has a foul-mouthed kid beating the shit out of some inbred child abusers who keep people locked in their basement. That alone is worth a decent rating.
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| 1 |  |
Ofterdingen | 60 51st |
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A constantly entertaining, though very uneven, horror edition of Home Alone.
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| 1 |  |
moraesfelipe | 90 95th |
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Unbelievably frenzy timeless horror movie that works both as social commentary - a black kid named Fool invades a house to get money to save mom from cancer and his home from eviction, only to discover incestuous siblings (Big Ed and Nadine!) {dude runs around with a BDSM suit!) that got rich by exploring real estate, stealing people's money with their properties and kidnapping children and keeping them under the stairs for life - and kid's fable with weird bits of comedy. So vile, so beautiful.
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| 1 |  |
BrutalBrian | 70 26th |
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A fun Wes Craven movie to watch for horror and non horror fans alike. Its a little lighter in fare than some films, but its not as gory or terrifying as some of his other works. That fact alone means you can let a larger audience for a viewing of this in than you could otherwise for a fun evening of cheesy films. Keep in mind for the sweet outfit one of the characters dons midway through the movie.
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| 1 |  |
WWallce4prez | 65 35th |
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Ving Rhames needs to stay away from gimp suit situations. Wes Craven's odd mix of slapstick and horror is, at times, a bit confusing. Still, the child actors are pretty great and the mouse-trap lined set is a lot of fun.
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| 1 |  |
BionicNinjas | 80 65th |
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Terrifying as a 12 year old, fucking hilarious as a 35 year old.
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| 1 |  |
Noblet | 63 38th |
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Charmingly odd, has some pacing problems.
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| 1 |  |
Darren | 77 69th |
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Fuck goonies. This an adventure movie
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| 1 | damil | 45 17th |
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Yeah, this wasn't great. The title and poster would lead you to believe it was a fairly dark film, but it felt more like an episode of Goosebumps or a Home Alone rip-off. I guess it was intended to be partly comedic, but it also had some gory scenes and mild swearing. So I don't really know what kind of genre they were going for. I'd love to see a more adult and fucked up version of this. But for now, we're stuck with a cheesy score, over-the-top acting and silly jokes.
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| 1 |  |
Seethruskin | 5 80th |
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The real "house is society, man" movie
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| 1 |  |
QtheAlmighty | 64 29th |
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Both hilarious and sickening in bizarrely alternating ways that mix into a queasy mess. The guy playing Daddy is having way too much fun with this, and I love him for it, despite how creepy he is.
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| 1 |  |
pyrosexual | 85 79th |
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Wes Craven's unsung masterpiece, for what that's worth. Its like home alone with an inner city black kid, leaving it with something to say.
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| 1 | Zipster | 75 30th |
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Wes Craven is always campy, so much so that the least campy of his films are the Scream pictures, which are satires of camp. But he is not without his subversive wit. Aiming his scope on the quandary of oppressed minorities in the inner city, Craven effectively transplants these issues onto a calculated, even somewhat tongue-in-cheek fairy tale framework in what is perhaps his most underrated film.
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| 1 |  |
metalhank | 59 38th |
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This flick leaves me a little torn, it's well made and filmed, pretty good horror effects for the time. I just wish they had left out some of the bad humour which does nothing for the movie.
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| 1 |  |
PianoSama | 70 82nd |
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One of Craven's smarter scripts that has early hints of Scream all over it. The social themes, the performances- particularly Wendy Robie's unhinged brilliance- & the writing all come together really nicely. It does a great job of balancing the black comedy with the darker moments, & Fool is a super fun character to root for. It's definitely not perfect, but it hits more than it misses & it stands out from other movies of the time. Worth watching if you haven't.
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| Average Percentile 42.23% from 925 Ratings |  |