The People Under the Stairs

Saw The People Under the Stairs, a particularly appropriate film on this, the day after the 2020 election as results come in.  The film is a horror movie directed by Wes Craven about a distinctly Ronald Reagan-ish looking dude and his sister-wife who steal children and who are landlords for a nearby slum which they're sucking dry and gentrifying.  The whole thing comes crashing down when a plucky black kid sneaks into their house and unleashes their basement monsters.

The film was a created as a pointed allegory/criticism of Reagan-era economics.  The wife raves about God and purity while the husband take barely-restrained sexual enjoyment from torturing others (he hunts the plucky protagonist in a full-on gimp suit.)  To outward appearances, they are wealthy and quietly elegant, but as soon as the cops leave, they drop the act and start snarling and shouting all over again.

As a caricature of reactionary politics, they have not aged super well.  I feel like the current avatars of subjugation and repression are not self-described decent people with sundresses but shouty fat men wearing camo and playing soldier, not the ultra-wealthy but the just-barely-not-poor.  Someone with a sneaking suspicion that they are being laughed at.  It's fairly depressing to see this caricature and to think how much tawdry and obvious it would become.  People now proudly video themselves doing things that are completely beyond the pale, that are self-parodying.

Anyway though the movie was alright - it reminded me a lot of Nothing But Trouble in as much as there is a gorgeous and sinister house.  The plot and characters are a lot better here of course and the conclusion is more satisfying.  I was a little annoyed at the involvement of the Community at the end, but it was the 90s and mobs didn't yet have a bad name.  Not a bad movie.