"Stepfather"

Rated PG-13
1 hour 35 minutes

Starring: Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Amber Heard, Jon Tenney

You should know there's a serial killer with twisted family values lurking nearby.

He's such a charming psychopath, eager to marry the next gullible young widow or divorcee, then murdering them before moving on in search of the elusive perfect family. It's the Re-make of "Stepfather," and believe me, this re-hash is every bit of trashy as its predecessor.

Sela Ward would never guess that amiable Dylan Walsh belongs in a mental hospital for the criminally insane. They might have been one big happy family for the short term If only Ward's troublesome older son didn't start getting suspicious.

The picture foolishly tries generating suspense where there is none. Our super sleuth offspring must think he's really on to something, if he'll interrupt his foreplay with the girl in the bikini next door. But with the watered down PG-13 rating, don't worry about "Stepfather" contaminating the teen audience.

It takes forever before clueless Sela Ward starts seeing the dark side of her sociopath of a spouse. I'd like to think that "Stepfather" was just a misfire attempting to become a demented spoof of those innocent family TV sitcoms of the sixties. But that would be giving "Stepfather" too much credit.

What more can I say about a lousy film that starts off as ludicrous junk and gets progressively worse? "Stepfather" can barely muster one star.

I've been saving space for this stinker at the bottom of the barrel.