The People Under the Stairs
Encyclopedia
The People Under the Stairs is a 1991 horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 directed by Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...

 and starring Brandon Adams
Brandon Quintin Adams
Brandon Quintin Adams is an American actor known for his playing Jesse Hall in the first two Mighty Ducks movies and Kenny DeNunez in The Sandlot....

, Everett McGill
Everett McGill
Everett McGill is an American actor, best known for mostly playing villains in films like Licence to Kill, Silver Bullet, Dune, Yanks and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.-Life and career:...

, Wendy Robie
Wendy Robie
Wendy Robie is an American actress known for playing eccentric, mentally disturbed characters in television and on film. She is especially known for her role as Nadine Hurley in David Lynch's Twin Peaks and as Mommy in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs...

, A. J. Langer
A. J. Langer
Allison Joy Langer Courtenay, Lady Courtenay , credited as A. J. Langer, is an American actress best known for her role as Rayanne Graff on the television series My So-Called Life.-Career:...

, Ving Rhames
Ving Rhames
Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...

 and Sean Whalen
Sean Whalen
Sean M. Whalen is an American film, television, and stage actor.Whalen was born in Washington D.C. in 1964, the youngest of four children, he was raised in Silver Spring/Olney, Maryland. He attended Sherwood High School and graduated from UCLA. He worked as a waiter while studying and performing...

.

Plot

Poindexter Williams, who is known as "Fool" because of a tarot card reading, is a resident of a ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...

 of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. Fool learns that he and his family have been evicted from their apartment by their landlords, the Robesons. Leroy (Ving Rhames
Ving Rhames
Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...

), an acquaintance of Ruby, offers to help Fool provide for his family by planning a burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...

 of the Robesons' residence after discovering evidence of gold coins in their possession. The Robesons themselves, known only as Daddy (Everett McGill
Everett McGill
Everett McGill is an American actor, best known for mostly playing villains in films like Licence to Kill, Silver Bullet, Dune, Yanks and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.-Life and career:...

) and Mommy (Wendy Robie
Wendy Robie
Wendy Robie is an American actress known for playing eccentric, mentally disturbed characters in television and on film. She is especially known for her role as Nadine Hurley in David Lynch's Twin Peaks and as Mommy in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs...

) live in a large home in a residential neighborhood with their daughter Alice (A.J. Langer) whom they terrorize and abuse incessantly.

Leroy and his associate Spencer take Fool to the house for reconnaissance, but are foiled; Spencer, posing as a municipal worker, succeeds, but when the Robeson's leave the home, the pair become suspicious decide to break in. They find the house is heavily fortified against all forms of intrusion: doors have industrial locks, and all windows are sound- and shatterproof glass wired and padlocked from the outside. After escaping a vicious attack dog named Prince, they split up; Fool ventures into the dungeon-like basement, where strange noises and figures scurry behind a barricaded corral under the stairwell, where Spencer lies dead on the floor. Terrified, Fool flees and reunites with Leroy as the Robesons return; Leroy is discovered and shot to death by Daddy, while Fool is drawn by a lure into a labyrinth of passageways between the walls that leads to an older section of the house, where he finds Alice. Alice tells him that the people in the cellar are the former children of her parents who have disobeyed one of the three "see/speak/hear no evil" rules of the household, and had the offending body parts amputated as punishment before being imprisoned in the basement, where they have degenerated to cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

 to survive; Alice has avoided this fate by obeying the rules without question. She also tells him that one of the boys, a mute
Mute
Mute may refer to:* Muteness, a speech disorder in which a person lacks the ability to speak* Mute, a silent letter in phonology* Mute , an upcoming sequel to the movie Moon...

 named Roach (Sean Whalen
Sean Whalen
Sean M. Whalen is an American film, television, and stage actor.Whalen was born in Washington D.C. in 1964, the youngest of four children, he was raised in Silver Spring/Olney, Maryland. He attended Sherwood High School and graduated from UCLA. He worked as a waiter while studying and performing...

), has escaped the cellar and into the walls, evading Daddy, who relentlessly hunts him through the house with a shotgun while clad in a full-bodied leather BDSM
BDSM
BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...

 outfit. When the police arrive to inspect Leroy's van, the Robesons discover Fool's phony cub scout uniform and realize he is inside the house.

Fool narrowly manages to evade detection with the aid of Roach, but is captured when he is reunited with Alice; Roach escapes, but is shot in the process. He rescues Fool from the cellar after Daddy leaves him for the cannibals, giving him a small bag of gold coins and a written plea to save Alice before succumbing to his wound. Fool ascends the furnace chute and escapes with Alice into the heating ducts, inadvertently causing Daddy to accidentally kill Prince. They reach the attic and find an open window below the garden pond, but Alice is too afraid to jump and Fool is forced to do so without her after Daddy discovers them; Fool climbs over the fence to freedom, but yells to Alice that he will return for her.

Once home, his grandfather Booker (Bill Cobbs
Bill Cobbs
Wilbert "Bill" Cobbs is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.-Life and career:...

) plans to pawn the coins to pay for the family's rent and a life-saving operation for Fool's mother. He also tells them that the Robesons are not spouses, but siblings: the last of a mortician family that built a fortune on exorbitant pricing and unscrupulous real estate deals; greed and paranoia eventually drove them into incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...

uous procreating, and each generation has become increasingly unstable and psychotic. Fool alerts the police, and sneaks back into the house as the Robesons successfully hide their actions with a clever charade. After the police leave, they ambush him, but he frees himself and climbs towards the attic, where he finds Alice bound to the chimney. Once informed that she was kidnapped by the Robesons, she commits to helping him stop them, but warns him that Daddy has drained the pond, sealed off many of the passageways, and wired the entire house with explosives. Fool is cornered by Daddy during a failed surprise attack, but is saved when Ruby, Booker, and the rest of the ghetto converge on the house, distracting them enough for him to escape into the corral. The People Under the Stairs, eager to assist an ally of Roach, take Fool to the vault, where the Robesons have stashed their enormous stores of cash and gold, as well as their stockpile of dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...

.

Alice is cornered by Mommy, but the cannibals break out of the basement and chase her to the kitchen, where Alice stabs her with a kitchen knife and denounces her as her mother; they then slit her throat and toss her down the basement steps. Distraught, Daddy tracks Fool to the vault, only to find that he has commandeered the detonating wires and threatens to blow up the vault; Daddy attempts a feint, and Fool sets off the detonator. The resulting explosion demolishes most of the house and spits the money up through the crematorium chimney and onto the throngs of people waiting outside; Daddy is thrown through the corral wall and into the sewer, where he dies. Alice and Fool reunite in the basement, the tenants outside reclaim their pilfered fortunes, and the freed People Under the Stairs venture into the night.

Cast

  • Brandon Adams
    Brandon Quintin Adams
    Brandon Quintin Adams is an American actor known for his playing Jesse Hall in the first two Mighty Ducks movies and Kenny DeNunez in The Sandlot....

     as Poindexter 'Fool' Williams
  • Everett McGill
    Everett McGill
    Everett McGill is an American actor, best known for mostly playing villains in films like Licence to Kill, Silver Bullet, Dune, Yanks and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.-Life and career:...

     as Man
  • Wendy Robie
    Wendy Robie
    Wendy Robie is an American actress known for playing eccentric, mentally disturbed characters in television and on film. She is especially known for her role as Nadine Hurley in David Lynch's Twin Peaks and as Mommy in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs...

     as Woman
  • A. J. Langer
    A. J. Langer
    Allison Joy Langer Courtenay, Lady Courtenay , credited as A. J. Langer, is an American actress best known for her role as Rayanne Graff on the television series My So-Called Life.-Career:...

     as Alice
  • Ving Rhames
    Ving Rhames
    Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...

     as Leroy
  • Bill Cobbs
    Bill Cobbs
    Wilbert "Bill" Cobbs is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.-Life and career:...

     as Grandpa Booker
  • Kelly Jo Minter
    Kelly Jo Minter
    Kelly Jo Minter is an American actress who has starred in many feature films. Her first feature role was in the 1985 hit drama film Mask...

     as Ruby
  • Sean Whalen
    Sean Whalen
    Sean M. Whalen is an American film, television, and stage actor.Whalen was born in Washington D.C. in 1964, the youngest of four children, he was raised in Silver Spring/Olney, Maryland. He attended Sherwood High School and graduated from UCLA. He worked as a waiter while studying and performing...

     as Roach
  • Jeremy Roberts as Spenser

Reception/Box office

The film opened at the Number 1 spot at the box office, taking in over $5.5 million that weekend, and stayed into the top 10 for a month until early December. The film went on to gross over $24.2 million Domestic (U.S) and over $7.1 million foreign, bringing its worldwide total to just a little over $31.3 million dollars.

Possible remake

Wes Craven at one point said he would like to remake the film along with The Last House On The Left
The Last House on the Left (1972 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.The story is inspired by the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge"...

and Shocker
Shocker (film)
Shocker is a 1989 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven. The relatively low-budget film has since become a cult classic...

. However, after the release of the 2009 remake
The Last House on the Left (2009 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 2009 American film directed by Dennis Iliadis and written by Carl Ellsworth and Adam Alleca. It is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name, and stars Monica Potter, Tony Goldwyn, Garret Dillahunt, and Sara Paxton...

 of The Last House on the Left, Craven has not since mentioned a project on either The People Under The Stairs or Shocker.

Release

Craven re-released the film as a double feature with The Serpent and The Rainbow on February 20, 2010 in the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

.

Attractions

  • Universal Studios Florida
    Universal Studios Florida
    Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...

    incorporated some of the film's plot as well as the house into a haunted house several times for their annual Halloween Horror Nights event.
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