The People Under the Stairs. 1991. USA. Written and directed by Wes Craven. With Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A.J. Langer and Ving Rhames. 35mm. 102 min.
A young Black boy from a city ghetto sets about rescuing a group of abused children held captive in the basement of a sinister suburban house in a white neighborhood. Recognized today for its commentary on class warfare, gentrification, and capitalism, The People Under the Stairs is a mashup of motifs drawn from Gothic and children’s literature, with a heavy nod to the racial climate of the era. Having begun his career in horror with The Last House on the Left (1972), among the most relentlessly disturbing foundational works in the genre canon, Wes Craven proceeded to invest leavening elements of satire to the serious themes in many of his later films. The People Under the Stairs reaches camp high-points in scenes of its deranged white villain, dressed in full bondage leather, wildly blasting holes through the walls of his home with a shotgun. Despite the perverse and frightening subject matter, the film’s uplifting social critique and progressive agenda, which include its interracial cast, put it in a class of populist cinema stretching back to the dramatic comedies of Frank Capra.