The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, February 15-21
The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Directed by Wes Craven
Craven’s bonkers satire of post-Reagan America is one part Do the Right Thing and one part Home Alone. The story centers around a young LA teen nicknamed “Fool,” who pulls a reverse Kevin McAllister by breaking into the sprawling home of his white landlords after they threaten to evict his family. He enters in search of a cash jackpot but quickly realizes that the bloodcurdling shrieks and groans he hears seeping through the walls and floorboards might belong to other unlucky guests who never found a way out. Everett McGill and Wendy Robie (both of Twin Peaks fame) play the incestuous sibling landlords with feverish glee. Their performances, punctuated by a dominatrix costume’s recurring appearance, tiptoe the line between campy fun and surreal horror and lend the film its unexpected humor. A.J. Serrano (February 19, 9:45pm at BAM’s “The Art of the Social Thriller,” programmed by Get Out director Jordan Peele)