Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The People Under the Stairs Blu-ray Movie Review

Landlords Are the Worst

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 9, 2014

Wes Craven began his filmmaking career in 1972 with The Last House on the Left, in which, among other memorable events, a group of home invaders got more than they bargained for. Almost twenty years later, Craven returned to that theme after reading a newspaper story about burglars who disappeared after breaking into a house. Children were found locked in the basement, and Craven's fertilely twisted imagination was inspired to dream up the masterminds who might have been behind it all. The advertising on the film's one-sheet (which has unfortunately not been used for the Blu-ray cover) neatly summed up the spirit of the story: "In every neighborhood there is one house that adults whisper about and children cross the street to avoid." Both the tagline and the film have gained force in the years since The People Under the Stairs was released. Every time the news reports the discovery of people (usually young women) held for years against their will in seemingly normal neighborhoods without anyone noticing, Craven's gothic nightmare seems a little less incredible.

As the villainous homeowners of the story, Craven made the novel casting choice of Wendy Robie and Everett McGill, who had caught his attention the previous year as the eccentrically mismatched couple, Nadine and "Big Ed" Hurley on TV's Twin Peaks. Identified in the film's credits as "Woman" and "Man", their characters are larger-than-life monsters in the great tradition of Freddy Krueger: merciless psychopaths with a bizarre sense of humor and a very strange relationship that makes sense only to them. Robie and McGill tear into these roles with gusto. All by themselves, they make The People Under the Stairs worth watching.

The hero of Craven's film is a kid named Poindexter Williams (Brandon Adams), who goes by the nickname "Fool", after the tarot card with which his sister, Ruby (Kelly Jo Minter), associates him. Fool, Ruby and their ailing mother have just received an eviction notice from the L.A. ghetto slum where they've been living. Faced with the prospect of homelessness for his family, Fool accepts the invitation—which is more of a dare—from Ruby's boyfriend (and possibly pimp), Leroy (Ving Rhames), to help him and his partner, Spenser (Jeremy Roberts), burglarize a house where Leroy has learned that a rare coin collection is theirs for the taking. The sweet irony is that the house belongs to the Robesons, the very landlords who just evicted Fool and his family.

From the outside, the Robeson house, which used to be a funeral home, looks dilapidated and harmless, but inside is a different story. Equipped with booby-traps, hidden security doors and gates, a vicious guard dog and various other surprises, the place is a fortress. But to what end? What exactly are the Robesons protecting? It quickly becomes clear that they're hiding more than the money they've made converting slums to factories and condos. Part of the answer lies with daughter Alice (A.J. Langer), who is required by "Woman" Robeson to adhere to a strict code of rules that seem to embrace more than just morality—and is brutally punished for the slightest transgression. Then there's Alice's mysterious friend, "Roach" (Sean Whalen), who, according to Alice, lives "in the walls" and who taunts the Robesons to a fury with his ability to evade them. Roach is supposed to have escaped from the basement, where something (more accurately, somethings) remain imprisoned. Anyone who goes down there is unlikely to return.

Fool learns all of this (and more) while dodging the two adult Robesons throughout the house, ducking in and out of ventilation shafts and other hiding places where his much larger accomplices could not fit. The Robeson house seems to go on forever. Indeed, I suspect that, if one tried to diagram it, the architecture would make no sense. Craven treats it as if the house were one of Freddy Krueger's nightmare landscapes, constantly undercutting its victims' efforts to escape and routinely throwing up new detours and strange monsters, like the figure clad in fetish leather from head to toe (which turns out to be Man's preferred attire for hunting down intruders). The police are, of course, useless. As soon as they appear, the Robesons have a practiced routine for putting up a facade of normalcy.

In the film's third act, the distinguished character actor Bill Cobbs (The Hudsucker Proxy) appears as Grandpa Booker, a kind of neighborhood sage and resident historian, who fills in necessary backstory on the Robesons and assists Ruby Williams in coming to her brother's aid. Sometimes the community has to rise up and take a stand against evil, and it doesn't always have to turn out as badly as it did on Elm Street.

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

The People Under the Stairs was shot by Sandi Sissel, who has been a frequent second unit DP on major studio productions (e.g., Master and Commander) as well the lead cinematographer for many TV documentaries. Her background fit well with Craven's directorial approach, since he has never been much of a visual stylist but he has always insisted on narrative clarity. Universal's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of The People Under the Stairs is one of the studio's better catalog releases, featuring decent sharpness, good detail, solid blacks and effective reproduction of the film's generally muted color palette, which was probably the right choice given the extreme nature of the performances. (Even the blood isn't as brightly crimson as it might have been.) On this particular occasion, the studio doesn't seem to have gone out of its way to make the film look more like video; the grain pattern appears to be intact and natural, and there's no obvious evidence (when the image is in motion) of the artificial sharpening that has marred so many previous Universal Blu-ray releases.

Unlike Warner, Universal doesn't automatically cram featureless releases onto BD-25s. The People Under the Stairs has been placed on a BD-50, and the average bitrate is a healthy 31.82 Mbps.

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

The People Under the Stairs was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo, and Universal's 2003 DVD had a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. That same mix is presented on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. Despite the lack of discrete 5.1 treatment, there is plenty of surround ambiance when the stereo track is played back through a good surround decoder. Voices and other sounds echo through the passageways and ventilation shafts of the Robeson house, cries and poundings move closer and farther away (depending on the action), and the blasts from "Man's" shotgun make enough noise to impress. The dialogue is clearly rendered, even when "Woman" shrieks out her lines in a rage. The action/horror score by Don Peake, reuniting with Craven from The Hills Have Eyes, provides the right note of suspense.

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

The Blu-ray has no features. As best as I have been able to determine, neither did Universal's 2003 DVD.

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

The People Under the Stairs didn't break new ground or start a franchise, and it won't be one of the films for which Wes Craven is best remembered (those will probably be A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream). But it reflects the writer/director's reliable craftsmanship and contains two memorable performances that walk the fine line between humor and horror that Craven knows so well. The Blu-ray is a capable presentation and is, on that basis, recommended.