Man – bad DVD cover art. What’s the deal? First we had the bad DVD cover art of the Friday the 13th series, a jump from the simple if not spectacular theatrical posters to some generic ‘jazzy’ type junk.

But our example today is even stronger, my friends. Today we look at ‘The Stepfather’, which went from the original 1987 theatrical poster, which was okay:

Then devolved to a pretty horrible video cover:

But THEN – the remake! Oh, lordy, we all knew the remake would blow. The fact that the first one was good at all rests squarely on Terry O’Quinn’s shoulders. Without him, you got nothing.

BUT – somebody in marketing had them put together a pretty sharp theatrical poster:

Wow – she’s a looker, yeah? Simple, sharp. Gets across the tone of the movie, the tension. And it’s drawn. That poster is a beaut.

Which brings us to the DVD art. For some reason, the really nice looking theatrical art wasn’t good enough. No – somehow, that sharp, professional look wasn’t going to do it for the DVD release. And so – we’re given this:

It’s not just me, right? I mean – that’s bad. The family in the bottom right aren’t even in any kind of correct proportion. And the dude in the light? The stepfather? Who is that? Is he supposed to make me want to rent this? Because if so, it ain’t workin’. He looks more like maybe a next door neighbor who came to borrow some sugar, but found a knife on the floor. He’s all “Uh… is anybody home? You shouldn’t leave your cutlery on the fl–” and the family in the basement is all “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Anyway – I probably don’t know anything about marketing and this is the DVD cover of the year. Or maybe the company wants this to look like a knock-off of the remake? I don’t know. But man. Bad.