 Thanks for checking out this movie analysis video. I yes, there is going to be a difference. I'm not going to call these in-depth Reviews reviews anymore. I'm going to call them analyses So these types of films where people ask me. Hey, can you watch this movie and like really break it down? Those will be called movie analysis and the ones where I just kind of watch a movie I don't really take notes or think super hard into the themes and everything and just kind of give like a quicker Review of it. I will call those movie review. So just know that up front The other thing please hit subscribe if you like any videos you see on my site or on my channel It can really help me out because more viewers and that's great And I'd like more participation as well Comments down below thumbs ups and the subscribing really helps and you too can Request a movie for me to do either a review or an analysis of Just make a comment below and ask for that, but you also have to be a subscriber too. So hit that Anyway, this one is for the people under the stairs. It's a film from 1991 and this is done for subscriber B camp 1390 once again, that's B C. A. M. P. 1 3 9 0 So thank you for this recommendation. This is actually a film. I haven't watched in quite a while. I'm it's been at least Five years at least five years since I've watched this film So it's kind of nice to just go back because every passing year my Recollection of films kind of gets a little bit hazier. So it's good for refreshers. So let me talk a little bit about Some behind-the-scenes stuff production, you know money all that kind of stuff first And then I'll get into my kind of feelings on the film things I broke down while I was watching it and I have all my notes right here. Yeah, it's actually a decent amount It's a decent amount of notes. Anyway, um, so this as people may or may not know I hope they know this is a West Craven film. He wrote it and directed it Like I said, it was came out in 1991 The budget for this one was six million dollars and it was kind of a surprise people didn't expect it to be Super profitable, but it was it made thirty one point four million dollars at the box office Which is pretty big off of a six million dollar budget six million dollars even back then was considered to be relatively low budget So for this to perform like that they were like, oh man, awesome so because of How well it performed and how well people have kind of thought of it over the years There was it's a little further down in my information, but yeah West Craven had actually talked about remaking this film at some point He also talked about remaking the last house on the left as well as this film shocker Which I have not seen shocker that one's on my list along with a ton of other horror films to see I will eventually so there were there eventually was a remake of the last house on the left And it didn't do great So after that the the talk of redoing shocker and the talk of redoing the people under the stairs kind of faded away until 2015 when West Craven actually said He was working on a TV series for the people under the stairs for the sci-fi channel. I didn't know this I found this in my research. I was like, oh wow, but the problem is 2015 was the year that he passed away He passed away in August of 2015 and all of us in the horror community as we know We were super sad because we lost an amazing filmmaker Amazing filmmaker and they he and there were he and three others that were the big horror film directors from his Class of filmmakers. It was West Craven Toby Hooper Georgia Romero and John Carpenter and of those four only John Carpenter still alive So kind of sad at this point and once John Carpenter is gone. It's you know that that class of filmmakers. It's gone. It's sad But moving forward So Everett McGill and Wendy Robie. I don't know if it's Robby or Robbie Those were the two main villains in this film Oh, by the way, this will have spoilers as it's an analysis of the film. It definitely has spoilers. You should assume that So yeah, so Everett McGill and Wendy Robie They ended up being cast as the main villains in this film because of their role as a interesting married couple in the Twin Peaks series which had I believe aired in 1990 89 or 90 I can't remember exactly which I love Twin Peaks To hear this information. I was like, oh, that's super cool. I love Twin Peaks. I Still haven't gotten through all the way the the new season that was on Showtime It was super super slow and not in the same spirit as the first two seasons so Eventually I will finish it out, but I'm mainly just a fan of the original two seasons. So All right, so yeah, so that's why they were chosen I think they did a really good job while West Craven did a really good job choosing those individuals because they do an excellent job of Keeping up the evil and their acting is great So this film actually if you're a big fan of the people under the stairs, there was a Blu-ray release for it Coincidentally in 2015 the year that West Craven passed away done by Scream Factory now Scream Factory is an arm of Shout Factory who does a lot of really good Blu-ray releases nowadays most recently With last year I bought their special release on Blu-ray of trick-or-treat Trick-er treat not trick or treat and it was awesome the extras on there the way it looks It's phenomenal. So Scream Factory does an awesome job and Shout Factory. They do a great job So if you are into this film, it's out there. You can get it on their website The other thing I wanted to say up front before getting more into it. Well, there's a little bit more Brandon Quinton Adams plays the main character in this the kid known as fool And I honestly think that as far as child acting goes he did a really good job There's some good child acting acting out there in especially in the older films He's like he's up there to be honest his role in this did a great job great job West Craven had had been recorded to saying that his idea for writing the script for this film was an actual news story that he saw where some burglars had broken into a house in Los Angeles and Because they broke in it brought the police to the house and they inadvertently discovered That the people living there had been keeping their two kids locked up like under lock and key basically like I Don't want to say inappropriately but criminally basically and He saw the story and he was just kind of like oh that gives me an interesting idea for a script So knowing that and going into watching the film you can definitely see That train of thought and how he got there how he got to what he has because of that. So that's really interesting Okay, let's get into the actual film now like the actual events of the film itself So one of the main things that hit home for me very early on is it hits the theme of gentrification? Very very hard. I don't know if people understand The term gentrification or not. I'm sure a lot of people watching this do know it But just in case I'll kind of talk about gentrification a little bit so gentrification is basically the idea of An area that is populated by people who are in a lower-income Situation and people who are much richer higher income coming in trying to price those people out of their housing Sometimes actually physically forcing them out just saying, you know, we're not gonna allow you to Renew your lease and you got to find somewhere else to live. So basically trying to force Poor people out so that they can remake the neighborhood with you know, higher-class apartments houses Businesses stuff like that to kind of like revitalize it and a lot of the times gentrification is tied into a racist element of You know, specifically people who are white and rich coming in and trying to push out black Black populations so it's it's not I don't think by definition it has to be racially motivated But I think a lot of the times it is tied into being racially motivated throughout history and even currently So there's that But they really hit that element a lot in this and you can really see it when you know Fool is with his family and you're seeing that they're living in just like horrible situations. They're very poor They're having a hard time paying their rent his Mother is even dying from cancer and they even say at one point. I think it's Ving Reims character who says, you know She could get treatment right now for what she has and she could end up being fine the problem is you don't have any money and that's kind of like making this point of Something that persists today even that's ridiculous is the fact that you have to have money to Maintain health and it's not just Access to health care, which is ridiculous in my opinion, but also access to healthier foods You know, there's there's a big correlation from what I understand With studies done of people who are much lower income who end up eating a lot of fast food because it's cheap and it'll fuel their bodies It's not good for them and it's bad for their health long-term, but that's what they can afford So they're kind of forced into the situation where they have to be less healthy Because they're not making as much money as other people who can afford to go out and buy like the highest quality food because they have a much higher paycheck and they therefore Have better health and they can also afford You know to go to the doctor all the time because they can afford health insurance And it's just this whole thing that I think is hit very hard in the beginning of this film And it makes a very important point. So if you just listen to that and you're like man, this is a little bit political I mean it is but that's the film like the actual film is very political and I think that a lot of these types of themes were starting to hit film Hardest in this time period, you know, like I said 1991 is when this came out And that that's when a lot of these things like gentrification and you know income inequality and stuff like that start really getting To be talked about even more in just film itself Not just like on a social level because it all it you know well before this and it's on a social level But more in film so moving on The other thing about about the gentrification in this is the main bad guys are kind of kind of have this view of You know if we start pushing everyone out we take all their money basically and then we you know Make sure that they can't stay here and then we'll rebuild To make this place, you know higher higher income area They're they're equating that with pushing the bad element out of the neighborhood. So adding a little bit more evil to it I Already talked about the health care thing. I'm sorry. I'm reading down my notes to make sure I hit everything that I wrote down So yeah So the issue of the lower-income individuals not being able to you know pay their rent and have health coverage and stuff like that It's creates it shows how it creates very dire situations in which people do things that they normally would not do because it's kind of a Survival thing, you know, you can see it with the character fool where he's just a good kid and everyone recognizes that in the film And he set up that way from the beginning. He's a good kid. He doesn't want to do anything against the law He doesn't want to do anything bad, but he gets talked into breaking into the house of these main villains by Ving Reims character because He's in a terrible situation and as Ving Reims Reims puts it to him, you know There's something you can do about your mother dying and so he internalizes that and it's kind of like You know, what's my other option? You know faced with keeping your mother or losing her Like what what's his choice really supposed to be so he Reluctantly goes along with after much turmoil that you can see in the film He reluctantly goes along with this plan But as it turns out when when they finally get into the house and They start looking around and everything ends up being a very good thing that they broke into the house Because there's some mess up stuff going on there as people I'm sure you've seen this if you're watching this right now, and you haven't watched the movie Please stop go back watch the film and then come back and watch this because you're gonna have it spoiled So One thing I really don't like about this film. It's pretty minor, but I think kind of major at the same time Is it the I feel like they made a mistake in introducing the inner house dwellers? I guess I'll put them that way Introducing them a little too early. There's that moment very early on in the house where the girl I think her character's names Alice Like has I believe it's Roach's arm who's living in the in the walls he like his arm comes out of the vent and Hands are the fork that her parents are looking for like oh you lost the fork And that tells you immediately that there are people kind of like living in there But then so does the actual title of the film the people under the stairs So this kind of ties into two things that are part of one thing that I don't like about it I think it's a mistake First of all to call it the people under the stairs should have called it something else because you're Giving away a key part of the film that you could have kept a secret and had a really cool reveal at some point But also the super early introduction of Roach's arm Which gives you the idea that there's definitely something going on here Just think about how much better and how much more effective and scary and creepy this film would have been if you go Through all the other events leading up to the like full-on reveal of the people in the walls and under the stairs like how much better that would be tension-wise and Interest-wise because you just kind of be like wait what what's going on there? What what's happening there? Who's doing this? The problem is you're set up from the get-go of knowing like up. There's people under the stairs There's people other people living in this house who are probably being held against their will So it kind of gives that away. I'd like it to be more of like a surprise element But you know that's just me In the comments, let me know your thoughts on that one specifically So the this family they obviously keep themselves totally locked up and shut off from the rest of the world And it's a combination of a few different reasons You get the idea that they're afraid to go outside because they think it's just populated by a very bad element There's a racist Racist aspect to it where they're you know They don't like people of color and you can even see that especially towards the end where the main female villain Almost says the n-word. She's like right there. She gets the first letter out and then it like cuts it off So that is insinuating that yes all along Because it is a little bit questionable at first like are they actually racist or are they just like complete shut-ins? And they don't trust anyone and we don't know but no that's that's actually in there to kind of indicate that So there's that there's the racism aspect there's the just fear of going outside aspect and the bad elements in the neighborhood and Then also hiding their secret Which is the people under the stairs as well as all the money that they've been hoarding from the people who live in the community And they're just taking that money and then also the aspect of keeping their daughter on lockdown Which we then find out isn't even actually her their daughter that they kidnapped her and they're holding her in the house I Initially think that she probably thinks they're holding her in the house because everything's so terrible out in the outside world Which they've been I'm sure telling her and so She's like oh, they're protecting me they're protecting me But then eventually finds out from fool. No, they they abducted you as a kid And they're keeping you locked up because they don't want you to get away again. Like you're not their kid So there's that aspect too. So there's a lot of levels and I feel like All over with this film There's levels just like lots and lots of levels to it Which is what I like about sitting down and actually analyzing the film It's one that gives me a lot to work To work out and a lot to think about and I like that about films so They did an awesome job in this film was set design I mean the look of the house the outside of it and have dilapidated it looks the inside of it also how Dilapidated it looks and just the all the secret passageways all the traps in there like it looks creepy It looks old it looks not cared for It's just they did an awesome job with that they really I think that's one of the strengths And I think that does an amazing job at kind of setting the tone for each scene It it's the environment of like dirty and grimy and creepy and scary And it just helps the film so much. So I love love love that the other thing is the whole Aspect of exploration of the house and when traps kind of pop up here and there It adds an aspect of intrigue and fun to The viewers experience of it and those are things I really like about movies like this awesome You get the idea in this that that McGill McGill's character the main I think she's called daddy in this I'll just call him daddy that his character Hopes people break into the house the amount of joy He takes in hunting people down once that they've gotten into the house fool Ving Reims character. I forget his name and the guy who acts like he's part He's with like the power company or something I forget his name too. He all those people like oh Well, he Actually, I don't know if it's kind of not covered I think it's kind of insinuated that the guy who acts like he's part of like the power company or whatever that he just gets Killed by the people under the stairs, but I guess you can't be sure but anyway when people get into the house Obviously daddy has a very good time hunting them down So you just get the idea that he's so sick and twisted that he hopes He sits around hoping for people to break into the house so that he can go after him and kill him It's nuts And that just ratchets things up it just it adds to the evil which I'll talk a little bit more about that in a little bit So I think this is a perfect personification this whole movie of the what goes on behind closed doors thing There's always this feeling Amongst people and especially within the horror community when it comes to horror films of like this Intrigue of what goes on behind closed doors and it's it's a theme that comes up in a lot of films And it's not just horror it's in like crime films and drama and just like all sorts of genres and subgenres of film and I think it's very effective because it's super interesting people are always into, you know, what's being hidden? You know, what's what's the secret there? So I think that works very well for this Another thing this really does well is it exemplifies the innocence of children and the tainting Influence of adults because if you think about it the overwhelming majority of adults who get good screen time in this film are not good, you know a lot of them are terrible and Terrible too And but all the kids are really good all the kids are innocent. So it's this this Theme of like here are these innocent kids put in these terrible situations and these adults are tainting them by forcing Their values and their actions on to them So there's that There are comedic aspects of this film that was intentional with the creation of it I think that works for the most part because of the absurdity of the way the two main villains were written and acted I think they kind of like ratchet things up to like 11 in order to Kind of meet the comedic Aspects of the film and I think because of that reason the comedic moments kind of work And I think in particular McGill's character of daddy Yeah, like he is the most ridiculous obviously and That kind of helps the comedic moments come about and he actually has most of the comedic moments to be honest And a lot of it's like physical comedy so Another aspect in this film of the rich feeding on the poor, but it's not just I mean it's shown as like financially feeding on the poor Which we can easily see when they find well first of all they First of all they talk about the aspect of them owning all these buildings and just taking money from people and Looking for making more profit more profit more profit Then we find that they have a whole room with all these gold coins and all this money that they've been taking from people And they're not even doing anything with it It's just like they're just holding it and like looking at it just hoarding money Which is like even more evil than taking people's money and using it It's just that next level But it's not just that but it's also physically in the film physically feeding on the poor because the moment where he's Where daddy is cutting up Ving Reims Character and he physically eats part of him now That's just kind of like the next ridiculous step to say You know we've been hinting at and talking about the fact that these richer people are feeding on the poor But here's this this kind of screen gag of he's now physically feeding on a poorer person So but he ends up throwing a bunch of parts to the people on the stairs as well And they're being forced at that point those people on the stairs to partake in this these cannibalistic activities because How are they gonna eat they're not being given anything else pretty messed up So within the relationship between daddy and The mother the mother. I don't even remember what her character's name was. I don't even know what was really said Must have slipped my mind, but you can definitely tell that the the Relationship there is that he is the is not the thinker that he's kind of the dumb muscle And she's the brains that doesn't have to take a whole lot of action But in the end she has to take action because she's forced into a corner and it's a do or die situation for her So she's the kind of driving force in everything and he's kind of just the muscle and Enjoying when he gets to do his thing. He kind of like their dog is her dog Where you know, she lets him off the chain and he's even wearing like a BDSM like Out full outfit that has like collars on it and everything indicating that he is just like a dog That she's letting off the leash to go after these people So, yeah There is a hint at sexual abuse on this that I don't know if people really caught it But the portion where Alice is chained up towards the end of the film in the basement. I think it's the basement Was that in the basement or in the Attic, I'm sorry. I can't remember. It was one of those topper bottom I don't know but when she was chained up there and daddy comes in because he heard some noise and he's Almost to where she is and he starts like kind of rubbing his crotch a little bit It's not super pronounced, but if you go back and look for it He starts kind of rubbing his crotch and then he's interrupted by his Who seems at first like his wife, but it's not but maybe is I don't know it's hard to tell How they were doing things there But he's interrupted by her and then he was like oh and he kind of like snaps out of this like psychosexual trance It's it's just that other layer and that's the thing about it. Is it how it Gradually peels back the layers of disgusting and evil with these two main villains It's just like nasty Um, so anyway Mmm in my opinion McGill himself ever McGill is the best part of this film other than the actual writing of it because His character is so enjoyable. You can see that his acting. He just went for it He's over the top but appropriately so He's He embodies the character like you you don't see him doing it and think well This doesn't make sense for what his character who his character supposed to be or what his character does Like everything fits and he just Makes it absurd without making it unrealistic If you know what I mean, but I think he did an awesome job. He's my favorite part of this. He's amazing But there's a lot of really good stuff about the film So one of my other gripes with this is the people under the stairs are actually a bit over the top Uh, the things they have them do are a little bit over the top. Um, how they're kind of like this angry mob Um, because they make them seem so Evil at first and then you realize oh, they're not really they're just kind of forced into this situation They don't really know what's going on. They're just trying to survive I feel like they should have played that second aspect the whole time And I I don't know I feel like the way they make them seem a little bit evil is just like over the top Their physical appearance to like the physical makeup and everything they did with it is very over the top in my opinion as well They just tried to obviously go more for scary and a little bit less for What would be more realistic in that situation? I mean if you notice like they had their eyes like they have no whites of their eyes they're just like black contacts And um, they're like not just like white, but they're kind of greenish I mean they would be super white because they're not getting sun, but like the the greenish tinge doesn't make sense It's very weird. I don't know. There's it's just like they make them more monster than they would actually be So just a pet peeve of mine in this film um, and then yeah, finally the The final thing I wrote down is the fact that One of the things that really hit for me when they found that room Well, they when fool found that room of just all that money and all those gold coins just sitting there It exemplifies another theme in this which is you know, the rich Hording the wealth, you know, not just taking money from the poor, but just Holding it just holding that wealth and doing nothing with it. Just their their whole Aim just being to deprive other people of their money and just hold it and look at it and be like Oh, look at how much money we have. We don't we're not even gonna use it We just love looking at it and being greedy and I think that really speaks to Not just something that was going on then but something that's going on very strong today Which is people who are rich don't really spend their money so much And that's one of the biggest problems with capitalism and that's one of the biggest Things that's hinted at in this film is that can't capitalism is so problematic because it creates the stratification of people that you have in this film of the very rich and the very poor and Yeah, I think that moment exemplifies more than any of it the fact that you know It's super evil that people who are rich are just collecting Endless amounts of wealth and not doing anything with it It's just being wealthy to be wealthy because it makes you feel powerful But actually this day and age it doesn't just make you feel powerful It legitimately makes you powerful because people get treated differently Especially in the court system. I mean if you have money, you can afford a very awesome lawyer You can afford health coverage like we were talking about earlier, which means you can live longer Also the fact that if you have a big corporation or you have enough wealth you can buy politicians at this point Literally as you give certain amounts of money to campaigns, they're going to do you those favors They're not supposed to and legally they're not supposed to do that and legally they'll say they don't do that But everybody knows that's what happens. So it's kind of this thing that was Um, I wouldn't say it was like cutting edge for 1991 to be in there But uh, it's become more of a common theme as time's gone on. So it was very, um, very One of my looking for here It was very appropriate to have it in there as a social commentary then and it persists today And that's the big thing about this film for me is that it's still relevant Like there's a lot of stuff a lot of themes on face value. It might not still seem relevant But when you dig into it like this film analysis, it's very relevant. It's a very relevant film today Okay, so Hopefully everyone enjoyed this uh Bcamp 1390. Thank you very much for recommending this It was really fun to do this rewatch and this analysis. Hopefully this is what you were looking for. Hopefully you like this analysis Put a comment down there. Let me know your feedback on it. Either way. That's fine um, so for this film, um A refresher I do a five out of five star rating and I can do halves I'm going to give this a three and a half. It's not quite to a four I do feel like maybe it could be more like a three point seven five But I don't do that on here. So I'm a little more on the three point five For the reasons that I kind of pointed out of like the people under stairs actually being kind of really overdone The title of it giving too much away the early introduction of the people under the stairs kind of giving too much away. Um Yeah, I I said that the the comedy Really does work because of the asserted absurdity of the villain characters But there are a few moments that it doesn't really work so much and it does feel a little out of place So for that reason I feel like the best I can do is a three three point five three. Well, sorry three and a half stars So that's still pretty freaking good. Um, really if you scale that up at seven out of ten. So that's nice Um, okay, and I'm going to be doing recommendations. I'm always doing recommendations with these film analyses Probably won't do it for the movie reviews, but for the film analyses. Well, I might for the movie reviews too I think I have in the past So for this one sticking in the same theme if you liked the people under the stairs I have a film to recommend for you. It doesn't have as many themes It doesn't have as much subtext or as much to unpack with it, but it has the Interesting house the interesting traps It's kind of an invasion film kind of like this is and that is the film the collector And I believe it's by the same people who wrote saw four on Dustin Melton, I think and can't remember the other guy's name But anyway the collector, uh, I've heard mixed reviews on it. I like it I think it's a fun time And if you liked the house exploration and the trap aspect of the people on the stairs You should like the collector and then there's a sequel. It's not as good. It's called the collection It's on a much larger scale, but I enjoy that as well not as much as the collector, but I enjoy that as well So there's my recommendations and Awesome. So like I said put a comment down there. We can talk about whatever Hopefully about this film any other people's thoughts on themes or what did I get right? What did I get wrong? What did I miss? That's another thing. I'm sure I missed some stuff. I can't get everything But let's comment down there give me a thumbs up if you can and like I said literally one second takes you one second Just hit that subscribe can help me out a lot and then recommendations be a subscriber recommend another film See what I can do Be camp 1390. Thank you. Sorry that it took a while for me to get this out there But thank you everyone and until next time. Keep it brutal