Revenge of the Stepford Wives |
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 • USA • 1980 • 96m •    • Directed by: Robert Fuest. • Starring: Sharon Gless, Julie Kavner, Audra Lindley, Don Johnson, Mason Adams, Arthur Hill, Ellen Weston, Thomas Hill, Gay Rowan, James MacKrell, Lee Warrick, Ed Bell, Sheldon Feldner. • Music by: Laurence Rosenthal.     A TV reporter arrives in Stepford to do a story on the American town with the lowest crime and divorce rates and the tightest real-estate market (no one ever leaves). She needs an assistant, and after interviewing the seemingly-plastic women of Stepford, jumps at the chance to hire the down-to-earth Megan, who's married to a newly-hired cop who hasn't yet moved into the town. Four times a day a siren sounds and every woman in town takes a pill (they each claim it's a thyroid condition). Accidents start to happen, Megan disappears for a couple of days, and the reporter realizes something is amiss. When Megan returns as a full-fledged Stepford wife, it's time for action.
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Review:
revealed in the surprise ending of the original, giving a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT reason for why the women of Stepford are always so "perfect."
Sharon Gless (Cagney from "Cagney and Lacey" and Debbie from "Queer as Folk") is a tv reporter who travels to Stepford to do a report on the ideal community. She quickly befriends another outsider, played by Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge on "The Simpsons"), who is the wife of a cop (Don Johnson from "Miami Vice" and "Nash Bridges"). From there the story pretty much follows that of the original, with Gless in the Ross role and Kavner very much in the Prentiss role. The exception is that Gless's character actually attempts to save her friend and free the women of Stepford, as would not have been possible in the original for obvious reasons. If you're like me and you love 70's and 80's horror tv movies, this is a must. The basic tenets of the horror genre seem to contrast completely with the medium of television during this time, since anything remotely gory or intense would have been censored, most tv horror movies aren't scary at all. In fact, often they come across as cheesy and unintentionally funny. This can be a whole separate, even addicting, genre in itself (see Wes Craven's "Invitation to Hell"). Spielberg's "Duel" and Dan Curtis's "Trilogy of Terror" are real exceptions to this rule, however. So don't go into "Revenge of the Stepford Wives" expecting a masterpiece. Although Gless is very good, the material is just... cheesy. Still, if you're a fan of the original or cheesy tv horror, you should definitely check this one out.
Review by DGlen1979 from the Internet Movie Database.
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