I just reviewed the 2009 remake, which I did see first, before realizing that this one existed. This original I _kind of_ regret watching.

==**2009 rating of 7 vs 1987 rating of 3.**==

Both movies have the same basic premise of [spoiler]"dude slaughters the family he married into, changes his identity, and marries into a new one to do it all over again"[/spoiler] but otherwise, they are actually different stories.

The 2009 one had good pacing and kept my interest with excitement and suspense. The 1987 version dragged on for me and it was about 12 minutes shorter in run time than the remake. If the two storylines were more similar I would have chalked it up to me being bored by already knowing what to expect, but I really didn't; that's how different they were.

Various similarities are definitely there, but they are small details and not the story itself. Some details were the same, but also entirely different. An example being that [spoiler]in the original the kid wants to go to boarding school to get away from home, and in the remake the kid has just come back from boarding school and wants to stay home.[/spoiler]

There are admittedly aspects about the original that were better than the remake, such as [spoiler]the extent of forethought shown that had to be put into changing "Jerry Blake's" identity so well and the execution of it all unfolding right before our very eyes in the one scene. That was actually rather impressive.[/spoiler]

There was also the fact that [spoiler]the kid (Stephanie) had a really solid person she turned to for support who was a really likable character. In the remake the kid (Michael) had his estranged father who was actually listening to him, but he wasn't entirely likable, and then there was his superficial, conceited girlfriend who wasn't listening to him; she was completely unlikable.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]The mothers in both movies weren't listening either and both were rather dull characters.[/spoiler]

There were serious scenes that actually made me laugh, such as [spoiler]when Jerry throws a tantrum over Stephanie kissing a boy and her mother insistently yells at her to respect her "father" even though she's quite upset with him herself over the whole thing. I don't know, I guess the absurdity of it all just struck my funny bone. I also preferred the less bloody beginning in the remake to this one's.[/spoiler]

What drove what would have likely been a rating of 5 or 6 down to a 3 was [spoiler]the "16-year-old" shower scene. In the remake, the character Kelly Porter was obviously only on screen for those long stretches to show off in various bikinis, but at least they didn't literally show what was supposed to be depicted as underage boobies. Gross. Just considering it again tempts me to lower my number even more, but I'm trying to give credit for the worthy bits. If they wanted to show titties they could have shown the mother's in the sex scene and/or they could have written Stephanie as college aged instead "I'm about to study for my driver's license!" age.[/spoiler]