Stepfather 2: Make Room for Daddy (1989); Additional 2 of 2

 Yeah, I think it is easy to say I've given a lot of time and thought to this sequel. Plenty of my peers would probably tell me maybe just a weeeeeee bit too much time. 

I will say that Burr's direction seems to at least keep the spirit of what made the first film so successful. Thinking about it now, I'm shocked Terry O'Quinn would ever have agreed to come back and work on a sequel. I figured he was the caliber of actor -- and a hell of an actor he most definitely is -- who would want to distance himself from a sequel of what wasn't really a slasher film in the typical sense, although this guy he portrays is so unbalanced and ripe to explode at any given moment, at any given time, he's certainly a killer archetype of the genre. 

I do really think Caroline Williams gives this sequel a great secondary character, a nosy but caring friend to the blue eyed Foster (I can't help but always mention those eyes: they grab my attention EVERY FUCKING TIME and I can't look away), who can't leave well enough alone, costing her big-time. 

Burr really doesn't knock us with much in the way of shocking violence, even though this sequel is very much a typical slasher followup. The ridiculous means for how O'Quinn's Man-With-Multiple-Identities escapes the institution still remains to this day a laugher...any doc who allows that much freedom to such a seriously fucked up monster deserves what he gets. I just can't believe it when these movies shows a doctor, a clinical psychiatrist, will forgo any sense of caution. I thought the same with "Silent Night, Deadly Night 2". The results are always the same. But the film needed O'Quinn out of the hospital and back out in the world to find that "perfect family". 

I think no one does an outburst quite like O'Quinn...when he's in that workshop pissed off at interference in his dream of the ideal family, that rage lashes out, and the hammer does some smashing. It is always a bit depressing, though, to see young Brandis as the kid with the dad who left for a younger woman, just wanting a father to give him proper love and care. The film allows him to be the one who rescues his battered and bloody mom. I was that kid who was excited to see Brandis in "Seaquest DSV", and when I heard of his passing really felt a deep sorrow, similar to when I found out about the loss of Corey Haim. So this early film with Brandis does leave that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I realize it would only be a matter of time before the kid would be a victim of that Hollywood darkside.

If anything, that ending gives us plenty of what the slasher film seems to bottle up: O'Quinn goes on the attack and Foster must somehow fend him off. The score still has that somber quality that seems to send O'Quinn off in style...he never could claim what he so often sought after. It just wasn't meant to be.

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I had forgotten about a review from 2013 that I gave a lot of mileage to. 2013 review

Here is the second of three blog posts I'll give to the film and officially sign off forever on this blog.

From IMDb user comments back in December 2009:

Terry O'Quinn reprises his role as the psychopath searching for the perfect family and willing to kill anyone who stands in his way. The first was more of a thriller while Jeff Burr's sequel is more or less a violent slasher film. Escaping from prison thanks to ridiculous means(..a psychiatrist wanting to help "rehabilitate" him, allows O'Quinn to meet with him, absent handcuffs, with the security guard waiting outside!It was an issue of trust, and O'Quinn saw fit to take advantage of such foolishness), O'Quinn uproots in a nice suburban neighborhood assuming the identity of a shrink, soon bewitching a real estate agent and her son(Meg Foster and Jonathan Brandis). Foster's husband, played by Mitchell Laurance, a dentist, took off with his receptionist and attempts to re-enter her life to the chagrin of O'Quinn. Also disrupting matters is Foster's gal pal, Caroline Williams, a postal worker who senses something's wrong about Mr. Right. Will O'Quinn allow certain people to interfere with his plans of betrothal? Or, will he solve such complications through violent means? Burr's direction is just as flashy and colorful as ever, attempting to better rather mediocre material. The movie is as predictable as they come, helped somewhat by a solid cast. Caroline Williams(..best known in Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre II)has a substantial role as Foster's snooping best friend, and pays a heavy price for attempting to protect her from O'Quinn. Foster and Brandis have rather thankless roles here, more or less servicing the plot as potential victims-in-the-making. This is O'Quinn and Williams' show all the way, and Terry capitalizes on the many nuances of his character, trying to develop him despite a plot which would wish to have him just murder people like some soulless madman. Amusing use of the tune "Camptown Races", whistled, and how it plays in the undoing of O'Quinn.