Historically I have been a big baby when it comes to watching ‘horror’ movies, but last night I stepped out of my comfort zone to watch Wes Craven’s 1991 film: ‘The People Under The Stairs’, which screened at The Thrillema (at the Natural History Museum in Halifax, NS). This was during the hellish week where Nova Scotia experienced extreme heat and out of control forest fires. It was nice to spend time with something that is a different kind of scary during such fearful times.
This experience reminded me of a concept explored in Peter Counter’s 2020 collection of essays ‘Be Scared Of Everything: Horror Essays’ – where he frames the appreciation of life as one of the genre’s core functions.
At the event, one of the organizers introduced the film by talking about Wes Craven’s approach to film making. They mentioned how his films were particularly popular among Black and Latino communities which influenced his style, contributing to the focus in his film’s being on celebrating survivors instead of the power of the villain. This film is also extremely relevant right now, with most pressing conflict existing between greedy landlords and a struggling family trying to avoid reno-viction.
The protagonist (called) ‘Fool’ is introduced as his older sister gives him a taro reading, explaining the similarities between the fool card and her brother. Their sick mother audibly coughs from the other room. Fool doesn’t understand the trouble his family is in until he bumps into a person he’s never met before, one of his sister’s friends, who tells him the truths his family have been trying to protect him from. This stranger presents Fool with an opportunity to make some money and help his family.
This movie was so much fun and re-ignited my curiosity of horror movies. It reminded me of Jordan Peele’s films how hey combine horror and social realism. I read online Peele is entertaining the idea of remaking this film.
This movie surpassed the expectations I had based on the trailer and images online. It was scary but it was so much more than that. I highly recommend this movie for anyone interested in horror, Wes Craven, or films with a strong social commentary.
Funny side-note, I could not stop thinking about the visual similarities of Bruno living in the walls.