Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

The People Under the Stairs Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 11, 2015

It was barely more than a year ago that Universal Pictures released The People Under the Stairs on Blu-ray, so it may strike some as odd that Scream Factory, the horror imprint of Shout! Factory, should be back at this particular well (and/or ventilation shaft, as the case may be) so soon. But as tends to be the case with at least some Scream Factory releases, it’s the bonus material at least as much as the actual film that will create the most excitement, at least among some fans. Wes Craven’s 1991 opus is truly beloved by a certain element of the Craven fan base (and of course by horror aficionados in general), while others find it at most a fitfully engaging trek through a somewhat overstuffed set of plot machinations. The film is rather like one element of its pint sized hero’s quest: it seems to be about one thing, at least for a little while, before veering off into a number of detours that finally end up interweaving in a spectacularly over the top finale. In fact, much of The People Under the Stairs is over the top, including the performances of its two featured adult actors, Wendy Robie as a character known generically as Woman or Mommy Robeson, and Everett McGill as Man or Daddy Robeson.

For a recap of the film’s general plot, I refer you to Michael Reuben’s The People Under the Stairs Blu-ray review of the Universal release. As Michael mentions in his review, a lot of intervening news stories about various people held captive in seemingly “normal” looking suburban households has tended to give The People Under the Stairs a bit more verisimilitude than its surface weirdnesses might suggest, though it’s obvious that Craven is going for an almost folkloristic or even cartoonish take on admittedly disturbing material. The film's performance styles run the gamut from something approaching naturalism on the part of little Brandon Adams as Poindexter "Fool" Adams, to something approaching Grand Guignol hyperbolism on the part of Robie and McGill as the horrifying villains of the piece.

The People Under the Stairs often plays like a live action fairy tale, albeit the dark and dastardly kind favored by the Brothers Grimm. While ultimately repetitive due to its very plot artifices (the bulk of the film is simply "Fool" attempting to elude and/or outsmart the Robesons), the film delivers a surprisingly consistent amount of chills, and chances are once you’ve met them, you’ll never forget the patently off the wall Robeson family. The film has remained a cult item for years and continues to inform a lot of subsequent horror outings. The obsidian “love” suit that was featured so prominently in American Horror Story: The Complete First Season may have an antecedent in this film, and concepts like entities living in the walls of houses have been utilized in subsequent offerings like Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners. Craven wraps all of these elements up in a deliciously twisted way, with the result being that any pint sized would be interlopers will probably think twice about breaking into a neighborhood home anytime soon.

The People Under the Stairs Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The People Under the Stairs is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.81:1. That somewhat unusual aspect ratio and the fact that Shout! has not trumpeted a new transfer (as it tends to do when it undertakes such efforts) leads me to believe this is sourced from the same master that was utilized for the Universal Blu-ray which was released in September 2014. I've tried to recreate or at least approximate several of the screenshots from Michael's original review, and for those of you who like to do such things, toggling between full sized windows of comparable screencaptures shows that color space and general sharpness and clarity are nearly identical if not absolutely identical. It looks (based solely on screenshot comparisons alone) that the Scream release may have minimally less grain, but from a purely "experiential" standpoint, there is grain in abundance throughout this presentation. In fact, one transitory drawback of this release is the now familiar tendency toward yellow splotchiness in darker sequences that has afflicted other Shout! and Scream releases. Otherwise, I echo Michael's comments in his review, though I personally found some of the blood to be pretty darned crimson in a couple of scenes. There's also some minimal telecine wobble in the credits sequence which quiets down once the film proper gets underway.

The People Under the Stairs Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The People Under the Stairs offers both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix, as opposed to the Universal release which boasted only a lossless stereo option. The 5.1 mix is quite convincing, at least sporadically, with some nicely placed sound effects once Fool is scrambling in and out of tight spaces and various threats are impinging from the "outside". There's some very effective ambient reverb which helps to establish various hiding places Fool sequesters himself in. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly, and the score by Don Peake and Graeme Revell enjoys a substantially wider soundstage in the 5.1 iteration. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range wide on these problem free tracks.

The People Under the Stairs Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• House Mother with Wendy Robie (1080p; 19:26). Robie is surprisingly philosophical about her role and the film, offering a thesis that the pain Woman experienced in her life informs the disturbing humanity of the character. She gets into a bit of her history, including Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery of course, as well as her background in Shakespearian theater.


• What Lies Beneath - The Effects of "The People Under the Stairs" (1080p; 15:02) includes interviews with Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman, and Greg Nicotero, who get into their career histories at that point and how they achieved some of the film's distinctive effects on a relatively small budget. There's some fun archival footage utilized in this supplement as well.


• House of Horrors with Director of Photography Sandi Sissel (1080p; 16:09). Sissel, one of the relatively rare female cinematographers (Salaam Bombay!), talks about her background and how she got into this line of work. She finds The People Under the Stairs a bit more comedic than some others may.


• Behind the Scenes Footage (1080i; 6:39) offers some fun candid footage, including a good look at the fake body that is supposed to be the Ving Rhames character (or what's left of him) in one of the film's more iconic scenes. This sourced from old and at times problematic video.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 1:18)


• TV Spots (1080p; 1:21)


• Vintage Making of Featurette (1080p; 3:43) is a brief EPK.


• Original Storyboards (1080p; 6:55)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 4:17)


• Audio Commentary with Wes Craven. Red Shirt Pictures' Michael Felsher (who produced some of the other supplements on the disc) hosts and Craven and the two discuss a wide gamut of issues related to the film. Craven gets into some of the sparks of inspiration for the tale, including his own interest in the Tarot. There's a wide range of fun and at times funny anecdotal information in this enjoyable conversation.


• Audio Commentary with Brandon Adams, A.J. Langer, Sean Whalen and Yan Burg. This is a bit spottier in terms of consistency, with some dead spots, but the actors, while a bit prone toward describing what we're already seeing on the screen, offer some decent anecdotal memories along the way.

The People Under the Stairs Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Craven's patented blend of lunacy and madness is on full display in The People Under the Stairs, and the film boasts two of the downright weirdest main characters in horror film history. That old adage used to go something like, "you'll laugh, you'll cry," which might be slightly amended to "you'll laugh, you'll emit brief gasps of shock" as Craven wends a somewhat circuitous tale that probably has a bit too much backstory for its own good, but which offers opportunities for some outstanding set pieces. Fans of the film will no doubt indulge in a frame by frame comparison of this release with the Universal release in terms of video quality, but on supplemental material alone, Scream Factory has once again provided an embarrassment of riches. Recommended.