TAKING STOCK
WICKED STEP-PARENTS
Celebrating the standout stock characters in movies…
There are few so maligned in all of pop culture, literature and fairy tale as the wicked step-parent. In a tradition that reaches all the way back to German folklore through to Hamlet and A Series of Unfortunate Events, the ‘wicked’ step-parent is often the go-to for domestic villainy – popularised by Disney in their early films. It has been theorised that the trope exists as a convenient means for children to manifest fear and hate against their own parents while simultaneously still pedestalling dear old mum and dad. Whatever the case, the wicked step-parent is generally typified by extreme jealousy and a tendency towards cruelty to those in their care, ranging from padlocks on basement doors to straight-up filicide. Taking in the lesser-known wicked stepfather (or mum’s horrible boyfriend, in some cases), Buff meets the grotesquely and deliciously wicked alike. Who’s the unfairest of them all?
QUEEN GRIMHILDE
The original wicked stepmother against whom all others will forever be judged, Grimhilde is so malicious that she is most commonly referred to as ‘The Evil Queen’ or ‘The Wicked Queen’. Setting the standard for villainy, the Queen’s vanity led her to make multiple attempts on stepdaughter Snow White’s (Adriana Caselotti) life – first with the Huntsman and his hunting knife, then the poisoned apple. The girl’s only crime? Being prettier than her stepmother. La Verne achieved the change in performance between regal Queen and ‘hag’ by removing her own false teeth. Meanwhile, the animators preferred to draw the Queen over Snow White herself because she was ‘more real and complex as a woman, more erotic and driven to desperate acts by her magic mirror’ according to Cracking the Magic Mirror: Representations of Snow White author Jack Zipes.
JERRY BLAKE
Obsessed with building the ideal family, a serial killer assumes life with a widow and her teenage daughter (Jill Schoelen). This schlocky thriller follows Jerry as his American dream deteriorates - plotting to bump off his wife and stepdaughter when they fail to live up to his standards. Loosely drawing on the activities of murderer John List, screenwriter Donald E. Westlake was in turn inspired by his own stepdaughter (uh-oh) who he struggled with at the time. Schoelen claimed that she suffered from nightmares after filming the final act – accusing O’Quinn of stalking her in her dreams. Two lesser sequels followed – only one of which starred O’Quinn. The Lost actor was offered a cameo in the bland 2009 remake, but he stepped away from that opportunity.
MOTHER GOTHEL
Mama knows best, or so dastardly Mother Gothel (a name which translates roughly to ‘foster mother’ in old German) would gaslight Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) i
