The People Under the Stairs (1991) on Netflix
R19911h 42mComedyHorrorMystery
Poindexter Williams, nicknamed Fool, is thirteen. His family faces eviction, and his mother cannot afford cancer treatment. Family friend Leroy convinces him to help rob their landlords' house.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.4/1044,195 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Robesons, who call themselves Mommy and Daddy and are believed to be a married couple, own the Los Angeles apartment building where thirteen-year-old Poindexter Williams lives with his family. They buy neglected buildings, raise the rents to force tenants out and sell them to developers, and they abuse their daughter, Alice. Fool, as the boy is nicknamed, needs money: his mother has cancer and cannot afford treatment. A family friend, Leroy, persuades him to help burglarize the Robesons' house for a collection of gold coins rumored to be inside. Leroy, his associate Spenser and Fool get in with Spenser posing as a municipal worker.
Cast
- David Robinsonas Person Under the Stairs (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Craven said the story was partly inspired by a real 1978 news story in which two burglars forced their way into a house in Los Angeles and unintentionally led local law enforcement to discover a pair of children who had been locked away by their parents.
- Everett McGill and Wendy Robie were cast as the Robesons after starring together as the married couple "Big" Ed and Nadine Hurley in the television series Twin Peaks.
- The MPAA asked for alterations to only one sequence, removing a shot of McGill biting into a gelatine liver prop designed by KNB EFX Group; Craven was taken aback by the relative leniency and theorized the film's more optimistic, sometimes humorous approach may have counted in his favor.
- Craven worried Universal would not respond to a script whose male lead was a young black kid, and to the bizarre nature of the premise, but Tom Pollock and James Jacks were very supportive of the concept.
- The Thomas W. Phillips residence at 2215 S. Harvard Blvd in Los Angeles, the former home of Butterfly McQueen, was used as the Robeson house.
- On October 30, 2020 Collider reported that Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld had signed on to produce a remake under Monkeypaw Productions for Universal Pictures.
