WasAnnon
Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
ChicRawIdol
A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Red-Barracuda
The Stepford Children is the second sequel to the cult 70's movie The Stepford Wives. This is the only sequel I have seen but I am aware they are all made for TV movies. The angle that this instalment takes is that now it is the children of Stepford who are being re-made to fit the ultra-conservative model favoured by the men of the community. I guess its underlying message is a warning against regimented conformity and the pursuit of an idealised 'perfection'. In this sense it's no different really to the first film but because the focus is now on teenagers as opposed to women, it takes the message away from the misogyny of a male dominated society to the angst of teenagers growing up and trying to remain individuals in a society that tries to mould them. It's the kind of themes that remain very relevant.The story focuses on a family who move to the town of Stepford from the big city. The two kids do not fit into the community at all well, seeing as all the other teenagers from the town seem to be lifeless automatons. Although, it does have to be said that these two are the most 80's looking teenagers imaginable – it's hairspray, indoor-shades-wearing and headbands all the way! Anyway, before long their father becomes a member of the ominous Men's Association and he is soon convinced to have his wayward children 'corrected'.This is overall a fairly decent film. The Stepford set-up is an interesting one and more leverage is engineered from the basic premise. But obviously the sense of mystery from the original movie is long gone and this does detract from the film's impact somewhat. We know from the outset why the women and children act so strangely, so it does mean that the amateur sleuthing by the new family is sort of wasted on us. But even taking this into account it's still an effective enough movie. The acting performances are pretty decent and there are some individual good moments, most of which involve scenes of the robotic replicas acting oddly. It's only towards the end where we see the sinister goings on behind the scenes. It's perhaps a pity there wasn't a little more made of this though as the ending itself is a bit too rushed for much of an impact. But all-in-all The Stepford Children is a decent enough TV chiller.
Paul Andrews
The Stepford Children starts as the Harding family leave the big city for the final time & head for the small peaceful town of Stepford where they plan to settle down, Steven Harding (Don Murray) used to live in Stepford some seventeen years ago & is familiar with the town although his wife Laura (Barbara Eden) & their two teenage children Mary (Tammy Lauren) & David (Randall Batinkoff) have no experience of Stepford themselves. At first Stepford seems perfect, the ideal place to raise a family & live but it becomes clear that Stepford is too perfect & hides a sinister secret. David meets Lois (Debbie Barker) at school & the two quickly become an item but Lois remarks at how her mother has suddenly changed, then Lois undergoes the sudden change to an emotionless shell & David becomes suspicious. It seems that the men of Stepford are replacing their wives & children with perfect robot replicas & David is next on the list...Directed by Alan J. Levi this second made for television sequel to The Stepford Wives (1975) came seven years after our last visit in Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980) & adds nothing to the formula firmly established by the original two films & is one of the dullest films I have sat through in quite some time & to describe The Stepford Children as a slow burner would be an understatement. Sure, the wives of Stepford are given a break this time around & the Stepford children are the ones killed & replaced by so-called perfect robots to fulfill their father's idealogical desires & aspirations but it makes little difference in the end, the same sort of themes & ideas are brought up yet again with the basic notion of a necessity for human emotion & feeling. Boring. Unoriginal. Dull. Take your pick. At over an hour & a half The Stepford Children takes ages to go anywhere, one big problem is that if you are anyway familiar with original The Stepford Wives novel or film then surely you will know what's going on straight away & the attempt by the script to turn the story into a mystery thriller falls down flat on it's face. I just sat there waiting for The Stepford Children to get going but it never did, I sat there waiting to get the robot reveal out of the way early on as surely not many audiences would be totally unaware with the concept behind The Stepford Wives but it plays it incredibly seriously until the very end & tries to maintain an air of mystery, suspense & surprise which it never can hope to as it's not original or well written enough. A real bore of a film that feels like a family drama for an hour as kids rebel against their parents & the system of conformity with less than satisfying results, the character's are poor, the dialogue is forgettable & nowhere near enough happens. One to avoid unless you have insomnia.While the first hour & a bit are dull drama the last ten or fifteen minutes veers into sci-fi horror territory with a laboratory of half human half robots that look quite bad, the special effects budget was obviously minimal & at the very end all they seem to do is just tap the Harding's car window & nothing else despite everything being set-up for a big final showdown. There's no real excitement, action, tension, suspense or gore to speak of & even the story is illogical. If Steven replaced David wouldn't his wife Laura have noticed? If all the Stepford child are to be replaced who would carry on the Men's Association? Do robot's grow old? How would Stepford explain an eternally young population that never aged? What do these Stepford men do with the dead bodies of the people they replace with robot's? The Speford Children as a film is frankly as dull, emotionless & bland as it's title character's. Not good.Made for the NBC television network the entire thing has a very forgettable look, there's no style here & nothing of any great interest happens. The acting is bland, no-one stands out & the cast look bored.The Stepford Children is a really, really boring film that takes ages to repeat the theme's & ideas of the original & goes nowhere with them itself. It doesn't even try to add anything to the mix other than the robotic children angle which plays out exactly the same as the robotic wives angle anyway. Followed by yet another made for television sequel The Stepford Husbands (1996).
Coventry
The third entry in the "Stepford" franchise, but apparently the three made-for-TV obscure sequels are incredibly obscure and hard to trace down, whereas the 70's original as well as the blockbuster remake with Nicole Kidman are commonly known and very popular. I haven't seen either the early 80's "Revenge of the Stepford Wives" or the mid 90's "The Stepford Husbands", but this "The Stepford Children" is a quite charming and highly entertaining little film. It's basically the exact same film as the original; obviously less mysterious yet much cheesier and incredibly 80's to the nth degree. The main difference here, like the title implies, is that not just the liberated wives but also the rebellious and punk teenage offspring in town undergoes the typical and highly effective "Stepford treatment", licensed by the local Men's Association. For some reason the scenario attempts to uphold the Stepford mystery until late in the film, even though nobody is likely to watch this sequel before having checked out the original and presumably everybody also knows about the denouement. The Harding family is all packed and ready to move from the grisly city of New York to the small and peaceful community of Stepford. Particularly father Steven is excited about their new life because he already lived in Stepford and always wanted to go back ever since his first wife, whom his new wife Laura and adolescent children Mary and David know very little about, died under mysterious circumstances. The town is almost too perfect, with picturesque neighbors and model students, and especially the modern teenagers face huge difficulties to adjust. Their efforts to modernize the place and take the local youth of Stanford in tow cause confrontations with the eminent townsfolk, particularly the members of the Men's Association, and put the familial relationships under a lot of stress. David meets and falls in love with the last "normal" girl in school Lois, but when even she transforms into a domestic dummy overnight, David can convince his skeptical mother to investigate the sinister Stanford secret. The first hour of "The Stanford Children" is slow-paced and rather tame, but the finale is trashy and cheesy like the VHS cover promises and like a late 80's thriller ought to be, in fact. The modus operandi behind the Stanford secrets is illustrated in greater detail, and I think horror fans and lovers of the original film will appreciate that. At least, I did. The overall plot still doesn't make a lot of sense and the script is chock-full of irrational aspects, but it's nonetheless an engaging formula and undoubtedly one that evokes an atmosphere of suspense and fear. The acting performances are far above average. Especially the arrogant and obnoxious members of the Men's Association depict plausible characters and even teenage players Tammy Lauren and Randall Batinkoff give away impressive performances. Recommended without hesitation!
jongruner
You may have serious doubts about watching the third sequel to The Stepford Wifes, but this is an absolute classic. Much scarier in premise than the first, and very entertaining. It only got a video release here in the UK, but should be released worldwide for everyone to enjoy.
