The People Under the Stairs is a 1991 American comedy horror film[3] written and directed by Wes Craven, and starring Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A. J. Langer and Ving Rhames.
Craven has stated that The People Under the Stairs was partially inspired by a news story from the late 1970s, in which two burglars broke into a Los Angeles household, inadvertently causing the police to discover two children who had been locked away by their parents.
He also finds out that Mommy and Daddy are actually brother and sister, coming from a long line of disturbed, inbred family members who built their fortune by running a funeral home, selling cheap coffins for expensive prices.
He reports the Robesons to child welfare, and as the police investigate the house, Fool sneaks back in and reveals to Alice that she is not their daughter, as she was stolen from her birth parents, as were all the other children in the basement.
Club wrote that "footage from the first Gulf War on the Robesons' TV—coupled with the depiction of them as a wealth-hoarding perversion of the typical upstanding suburban couple—marks the movie as a satire", and called the Mommy and Daddy characters a "cartoonish parody of conservatism".
"[8] In the 2015 Blu-ray commentary track released by Scream Factory, Craven refers to the Robesons' house as representing "the whole society of the United States".
[8] The case involved two African-American burglars who made a forced entry into a house in Los Angeles, California, which unintentionally led to the local law enforcement discovering a pair of children who had been locked away by their parents.
[10][11][12] Everett McGill and Wendy Robie were cast as the Robesons after having starred together as the married couple "Big" Ed and Nadine Hurley in the television series Twin Peaks.
1 spot at the box office, taking in over $5.5 million that weekend (earning back most of its production budget), and stayed in the top 10 for a month until early December.
The website's consensus reads: "Held aloft by gonzo black comedy and socially conscious subtext, The People Under The Stairs marks a unique -- though wildly uneven -- change of pace for writer-director Wes Craven.
Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune gave The People Under the Stairs a reserved "thumbs up", warning viewers about some disturbing material but also saying "if you like this kind of picture, [Craven] does it as well as you can imagine.
"[19] Nigel Floyd of Time Out wrote of the film that "There are a few push-button frights, but a total dearth of mind-disturbing terror; the humour, too, is broad, crowd-pleasing stuff".
[23][24] The film was released in Region A as a Blu-ray Collector's Edition by Scream Factory in 2015, featuring audio commentaries by Wes Craven with Michael Felsher, and by actors Brandon Adams, A. J. Langer, Sean Whalen, and Yan Birch.
[25] The Scream Factory release also includes interviews with members of the cast and crew, behind-the-scenes footage, a "making of" featurette, a theatrical trailer, and TV spots.
Universal Studios Florida has incorporated the house of Mommy and Daddy, along with other elements of the film's plot, into a maze attraction in the past for their annual Halloween Horror Nights event.