Padlocks on the Outside

The People Under The Stairs (1991) Dir. Wes Craven

Three burglars attempt to rob an opulent house that overlooks their community, and get trapped inside. But the psychotic rich landlords that are hunting them are not the only people who live in the house.

“They got their fingers into real estate, started making a lot of money taking over people's homes. The more money they got, the greedier they got. The greedier they got, the crazier they got. All sorts of rumours about what's going on in that place. Never proved it because the police never took it serious. But believe me, when I was a kid, none of us ever walked past that house.” - Grandpa Booker

Wes Craven. Has any other horror auteur reinvented themselves and the genre they work in as much as him? He started out making shocking, exploitation horror like Last House on the Left in 1972, paving the way for the video nasty era of brutal horror. In the eighties, he refreshed the teen slasher sub-genre with Nightmare on Elm Street - introducing an antagonist that wasn’t a silent man in a mask, but a monster who could use dream logic against you. And then, in the nineties, with New Nightmare and Scream, he ushered in the age of the self-reflective meta-horror.

I bring all this up to talk about one of his lesser seen or discussed films - 1991’s The People Under the Stairs. Part of his late eighties/early nineties experimental period. After The Serpent and the Rainbow and Shocker, but before returning to Elm Street with New Nightmare. I think it’s clear he’s reckoning with a number of issues in People, not least of which is the lack of diversity in horror films and his own back catalogue.

Craven is a filmmaker who is always in conversation with himself, his audience, and the state of the world as he sees it. It makes sense, to me, that he was a high school teacher before he moved into film.

Often criticised for having tonally wild films that can’t quite settle between horror, comedy, and satire - I think he manages to find an interesting throughline in People where the balance works. Nonetheless, audiences and critics didn’t know what to make of it at the time and it sadly became one of his more obscure entries in his filmography. Today, I think we’re a bit more open to tonal whiplash in our pop culture. The world is a constant tonal whiplash. It makes sense that the stories we tell, and respond to, are as well.

People plays as a kind of R rated Goonies that actually has something to say. It’s angry, urgent, and doesn’t have time to be subtle about it. Themes of housing discrimination, gentrification, landlordism, criminalised poverty, and class warfare are all front loaded from the outset. The People Under The Stairs is both a description of part of the plot but also a title that calls to mind the Upstairs Downstairs mentality of the rich and their servants. The similarities between Nancy and Ronald Reagan, and the crazed Robesons are no accident.

“You and your brother are landlords of over 50 buildings in this city, all of which you've allowed to deteriorate into rat infested hellholes while you guys get rich charging ridiculous rents. Then, you evict anyone the minute they can't pay rent so you can tear down their homes and build some more office buildings, isn't that about right?” - Ruby

One of my favourite moments comes towards the end where the local community becomes instrumental in saving the day. There are no individual heroes or final girls/boys to be found here, the day is won via collective power. How often do we see that in horror?

I’ve never been the greatest fan of the early, more exploitation horror films of Craven like Last House and The Hills Have Eyes. I think, because the title has a similar vibe to it, I’d always avoided People thinking it was part of that set. I urge you to not make the same mistake as me and seek it out - I think it’s probably one of Craven’s best (for me, alongside Scream and Nightmare as his Top 3).

Jordan Peele, who has cited the film as an influence, is in the process of producing a remake of People, though I’ve not seen much news on that since 2020. I’m curious to see what he does with it. The original already feels increasingly relevant during a housing and cost of living (a three word horror story right there) crisis in the UK (and beyond).

Where can I watch it in the UK?

You can rent it for £2.49 or buy it for £5.99 from YouTube/Google.

Pairs well with

Sticking on the anti-capitalist theme, I’d pair this with They Live (1988, dir. John Carpenter, available to stream for free on ITVX and Studio Canal). It’s both an incredibly searing indictment of Reagan-era neoliberal capitalism, and tonally unpredictable in the same way People is. 

The premise: a man discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world for what it is - invaded by hideous aliens who are keeping humanity subdued with subliminal consumerist messages.

Further Reading

• Yara Zayd did a great video about The People Under the Stairs and the horrors of landlords.
• Evolution of Horror - as referenced in my Panic Room newsletter - did a podcast covering both films as part of their Home Invasion season.
• There’s an interesting overview of Craven’s varied career at Senses of Cinema which is worth a read.
• A Lithub piece about how the housing crisis is increasingly cropping up in horror.
• Another piece on AV Club about Hollywood weaponising housing anxieties in modern haunted house horror.
• For people who enjoy a bit of practical effects, there are various making of and behind the scenes b roll of People on YouTube.
• Scaredy Cats delighting in how bonkers People is.
• While we’re here, want to see some British landlords at a landlord conference being openly evil?

Other Recommendations

• Mubi have a pretty fun Halloween collection of films available right now and I think it’d be worth signing up for a month to see what they have on offer.