| Director: | Chris Stokes |
| Cinematography: | Charlie Grey |
| Editing: | Harvey White |
| Music: | Immanuel Rich |
| Production Companies: | Footage Films |
| Distributor: | Tubi |
| Runtime: | 89 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
The Stepmother is a 2022 American psychological thriller film written by Chris Stokes and Marques Houston and directed by Stokes. The film stars Erica Mena as a woman with dissociative identity disorder, and Marques Houston as a recently widowed single father. It is a gender and race swapped reimagining of the 1987 horror film, The Stepfather.
The film was released by Tubi on June 17, 2022.[1] A sequel titled The Stepmother 2, premiered on December 23, 2022.[2] [3] [4] The Stepmother 3 was released by Tubi on June 8, 2023.[5]
The Stepmother received negative reviews from critics.[6] Niela Orr of The New York Times wrote article titled "Tubi Is Reviving a Lost Joy: Watching Really, Really Bad Movies" criticized production values writing: "The second of three “The Stepmother” films, a Tubi Original directed by Chris Stokes, features a flabbergasting continuity error in which the actor playing a security guard changes multiple times in one scene, despite one actor’s having a short Afro and the other’s wearing braids."[7] Movie Ranker gave it a 2 out of 10 stars writing: "‘The Stepmother’ is completely absent of any visual flourishes or unique identity. The family house looks like one of those fully furnished demo homes, untouched and never lived-in. Beyond that, Stokes does nothing of visual or aesthetic interest, resulting in scenes that look flat, uninspired, and empty of any meaningful color palette. There is no style to speak of here. Every frame of the film is essentially shouting at the audience that it’s been made quickly, cheaply, and without passion."[8]