THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS is another good one – in the late 80s, early 90s, Craven seems to have hit his post NIGHTMARE stride. Movies like DEADLY FRIEND, SHOCKER and now THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS showcase the one thing that sets Craven apart from some of his horror contemporaries, and that is his unbridled imagination. One half hour of even the worst Craven flick has more cool ideas in it than the entire FRIDAY THE 13th franchise put together.So, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS stars young Brandon Adams as a 13-year-old living in a low income neighborhood of Los Angeles. His family is being evicted, so he teams up with a family friend (Ving Rhames) to rob the landlord's house, which is rumored to be full of gold.
Turns out they decided to rob the wrong house! The landlord (Everett McGill) and his sister (Wendy Robie) are sadistic weirdo cannibals who kidnap children and keep the ones who break their rules in a cage in the basement, where they wait until it's time for them to be eaten. One girl (A.J. Langer) has successfully avoided the basement cage by following the rules as best she can, though she's still abused. There's also a kid who lives in the walls.
The house is a great setting – once again, a strength of Craven's – with lots of secret passageways, trap doors, tunnels, etc. Most of the movie takes place within the cavernous confines of the ex-funeral home, with our young hero evading capture and fighting back against his sadistic captors.
There are also some social undertones here, dealing with the black inner-city kid fighting back against the rich white folks. Even without that, it's just nice to have a little diversity here – it's an imaginative idea, yes, but is taken to even more interesting heights with an unexpected and wide variety among its cast of characters.
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