Review of The People Under the Stairs (1991) by Melvin W — 01 Sep 2013

Leroy: Nice to see the rich folks' got rats too.

"In every neighborhood there's one house adults whisper about and children cross the street to avoid.".

The People Under the Stairs is a classic 90's horror film from Wes Craven. Craven has made some of the best horror films and some of the lousiest, and The People Under the Stairs belongs to neither of these categories. It's not great, with weak acting and a real lack of anything scary, but it's definitely not bad. The story is a good one and Craven's direction and pace is strong. Also there's a lot of social commentary thrown into the plot as well, which always is good as long as the content works.

A young kid named Fool and is family are in trouble. His mother is really sick and they're about to be evicted from their apartment. When an older gentleman named Leroy asks Fool to be the third person on his team, which is planning to break into the landlords house where a big stash of gold coins are supposed to be and steal them, Fool is apprehensive, but ultimately his families problems force him to do so. When they get into the house, it's not what they expected. Not only are the landlords crazy, but they have a bunch of prisoners locked up in the cellar.

This is a fun little movie. It's one of those horror movies that you know is a product of the nineties, with the campiness of the villains and the ghetto setting. The movie has an interesting premise that the rest of the movie is able to live up to and that's saying something for the genre. Most of the time with horror films of this type, the premise is interesting, but the movie falls apart after twenty minutes. That isn't the case here.

If you're a fan of horror films and Wes Craven, this one is worth a look. It's no Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream, but it's a nice, solid addition to Craven's filmography. Don't go into it expecting anything special and you should enjoy yourself. I know that I did and I honestly wasn't expecting to.