Wicked Stepmother (1989)

The Worst Film Ever

So much average

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Don't know what I can say about this one… other than it's a complete utter mess that's hard to make sense of this oddity. It's like the curiosity of a car crash, as you simply can't take your eyes of the damage. Cult Director / writer Larry Cohen's "Wicked Stepmother" does look well produced (a budget over 2 million) until we get to some really cheap, kitschy special effects (fluoro lighting) that flooded the back-end of the feature. Technically its sound, up to that point. But this production while heavy-handed and campy, really had trouble with a lot going on behind the scenes namely with star billing actress Bette Davis, where she would eventually walk out of the presentation. Her character turned everything upside on the screen and also behind it. This left the filmmakers trying to fill in the gaps by reworking the story (witchcraft, the occult and game shows) and by the end product it truly shows it's made on the spot feel. Many random occurrences, incoherent story threads and bemusing performances. It wasn't as bad as I last remembered it and I remained entertained (always keep a look for movie references), but there's no doubting it's a chaotic shamble. Even if for the wrong reasons at least it was an amusing shamble. There's quite an interesting cast to boot as well; Colleen Camp goes about things in animated fashion, Barbara Carrera manipulative steams it up as Davis' replacement (yep that's right --- also lets not forget the smoking cat), David Rasche, Tom Bosley shows up as an open-minded detective, Richard Moll is diverting as a bumbling private eye and in minor, but key cameo roles are Evelyn Keyes and Seymor Cassel. Cohen regulars Laurene Landon and James Dixon also have small parts. Not particularly humorous (well laugh out loud) and the pacing makes it feel much longer than it actually is. Don't know if would have been much better, still would have been interesting see to how it was originally intended to be, but this silly comic outing remains a disjointed, witless comedy of mayhem and errors

Just the fact that it's Bette's last film is worth releasing it to DVD, maybe there is some extra's that the director has of Bette. I admit it's not the best movie but it is a little campy and fun to watch. And I respect Bette for acting up until she died. also Colleen Camp is awesome and did a lot of cool movies in the 80's...'Valley Girl' & 'Clue' anyways...I'd buy it if came out on DVD...of course I'm a Bette Davis fan and to all the the negative people making comment's "She'll take a tumble on you, role you like you were dice until you come up Blue...She's Got Bette Davis Eyes" ....well the movie is worth seeing for her alone and I to wish she was in it more but at least they kept her scenes and it's funny with some of the cracks like the Joan Crawford picture & when she's on the phone and there's a huge picture of Bette from the 1940's on the side of the wall. those are timely stuff knowing this was her last film.

In self-defense for this fiasco, writer-director Larry Cohen pointed out that, while every one else in the last years of her life were handing Bette Davis yet another meaningless award, he offered her the thing she sought most: work. Fair enough. But as it proved when this was new, I believe time will increasingly show this employment opportunity for Bette Davis was the equivalent of offering a starving man a meal of coffee grounds and egg shells.David died of cancer in October 1989, and the illness was plainly visible on her in her few scenes here. It is mournfully painful to watch her skeletal appearance in `Wicked Stepmother' if you loved her.Avoid this aggressively. If you liked Davis's 'old-lady' period and want to watch a dignified 'good-bye' movie, seek the warm and bittersweet Lindsay Anderson drama, "The Whales of August" (1987) in which she co-starred with Lillian Gish. It is not only a classy farewell to those two legends, but now Ann Sothern and Vincent Price as well.

Inane, ridiculous, boring, stupid, hilariously bad. This movie is all these things and more. "Leonard: Part 6" was Oscar-worthy compared to this. I feel fairly confident that I could have come up with a better movie by having no script at all and just telling the actors to improvise their lines. At least Bette Davis had the sense to realize how beneath her this movie was. The thing is, this movie is beneath the acting skills of most of the people in it. Including the cat.