The People Under The Stairs (DVD)

A young black boy from an urban ghetto has a big problem. It is his thirteenth birthday, his family is being thrown out of their home by their gluttonous landlords and his mother has a cancer that the family cannot afford to treat. The boy?s name is Fool; he?s a studious boy who fantasises about becoming a doctor. However, when his sister?s boyfriend gives him an opportunity to steal a huge sum of money by breaking into the home of his rich white landlords, Fool reluctantly agrees. Definitely a big mistake. Once inside the house Fool gets sucked into a world that he could scarcely have imagined. Here live the unhinged landlords, ...  Read the complete review

Wes Craven directs this about a boy, Fool who discovers that a brother and sister are kidnapping children and keeping them under the stairs. Fool is a 14 year old who lives in a run down part of the city. They are about to be evicted from their home and his mother has cancer. So Leeroy, a friend robs a liquor store to get some money from them. While he is there he finds the address of the store owners finds out that they also own half the ghetto and charge high rates so everyone is evicted so they can build offices. They also discover they have a gold coin collection. Leeroy decided to go with Fool and his friend Spencer to rob the house. Fool ...  Read the complete review

Wes Craven is one of the horror genre's more intelligent and influential directors but even so has had a pretty hit and miss career. For all of his good work there is something equally bad to match so you are never really too sure when coming across one you have never heard of before what exactly you are going to get. It was then with some suspicion that I rented The People Under The Stairs a few weeks ago, but having read good reviews of it I was willing to give it a try... ...and it turns out to be pretty damn good! The story revolves around the central character of Fool(Brandon Adams), a 13 year old child with adult problems. His teenage sister ...  Read the complete review

Director: Wes Craven Producers: Wes Craven, Shep Gordon, Marianne Maddalena and Stuart M. Besser Writer: Wes Craven. Stars: Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A.J. Langer, Sean Whalen and Ving Rhames. Released in 1991 this film is a horror/comedy, (with a lot of emphasis more towards the comedy). Although it has some very comical scenes the film does touches on the lines of child abduction and brutality, (however, there are no real graphic abuse scenes)' **BRIEF PLOT** From the slums of a city in the U.S. a young boy called 'Poindexter', (played brilliantly by Brandon Adams), nicknamed 'FOOL', had ...  Read the complete review

Released back in 1991 and directed by Wes Craven, 'The People Under The Stairs' is about a group of three youths from a poor black ghetto who decide to burgle the house of their rich and uncaring white landlords. The central protagonist is a young boy whom everyone calls "Fool", who is coerced into going along on the robbery by his older brother Spencer and his sister's boyfriend Leroy, played by Ving Rhames. Things quickly go wrong after they break into the heavily-fortified house however. Spencer goes in first and never comes back, and when the other two go in they quickly discover that the family that live there are utterly disturbed, ...  Read the complete review