At first glance, Darnell (Taye Diggs) appears to be a nice and charming guy.
He appears to have a good job. He’s confident. He’s seems to be all about family. He’s the guy who tells his stepdaughter’s boyfriend to look him in the eyes because “that’s showing respect,” but he somehow manages to do it without coming across as being a complete jerk. Darnell spends a lot of time talking about the correct way to show respect and how to act like a man and his wife, Asia (Tamar Braxton), appreciates it. Her ex-husband, Tim (TJ Shaw), was irresponsible and hurtful. Her teen daughter, Melanie (Jessica Jarrell), is going through that rebellious phase and Asia is happy to have someone who can back her up when it comes to being a parent. And Darnell …. well, Darnell is all about family. In fact, one might even say that he’s a bit obsessed with finding the perfect family….
Of course, Darnell’s name isn’t really Darnell. He’s used many different names over the years and he’s been a part of many different families. Though Darnell might seem nice and polite on the surface, he regularly has fantasies where he loses control. When he’s alone, he talks to his other personalities. He also remembers how he murdered his last family and went on the run.,..
Stepfather, as you already guessed, is an uncredited remake of the classic 1987 thriller, The Stepfather. Taye Diggs steps into the role that was previously played by Terry O’Quinn, Robert Wightman, and Dylan Walsh. (Wightman played the role in Stepfather III while Walsh took over for the 2009 remake that literally no one remembers.) Is this latest version of Stepfather any good?
Define good.
I say that because this is a Tubi original and I think you can very much argue that, when compared to other Tubi originals, Stepfather isn’t bad. The film is in focus. You can hear the dialogue. The pacing sometimes feels a bit off and the scenes of two detectives searching for Darnell often feel like filler but, for what it is, Stepfather is an entertaining film. I watched it on Friday while it was raining outside and I enjoyed it. It can’t really compare to the original film because the original film was as much a satire as it was a thriller. The remake does have a few moments where Darnell’s attempts to be a “perfect father” seem to comment on all the psychobabble about “respect” that was sold by the television shows that Darnell probably watched as a youth. But, for the most part, Stepfather is a straight-forward thriller. There aren’t a lot of surprises, especially if you’re someone who has watched a lot of Lifetime films. But the film still holds your attention.
Not surprisingly, the strongest thing about the film was the memorably unhinged performance of Taye Diggs. If the original film was made all the more effective by Terry O’Quinn’s initial blandness as the title character, this version wastes no time in establishing that Darnell is a bit unstable. After murdering his previous family, he dances. When he meets Asia in a grocery store, he delivers every line like a charming wolf on the hunt. When he argues with his other personalities, Diggs does a good job of establishing each personality as an individual character. Diggs shows what a good actor can do with familiar material.
Stepfather is available on Tubi.
