Director: Peter “Drago” Tiemann
Written by: Jason L. Lowe, Peter “Drago” Tiemann
Starring: Brent Bailey, Adam Korson, John Crotty, Tyra Colar
Runtime: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

As far as horror in 2021, I have been impressed with the rise in folk horror as a subgenre. With Kier-La Janisse’s documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror we get a picture of the rich history the genre has. Recent releases like In the Earth and The Green Knight have also utilized these elements to great effect. It seems like an area that is ripe for filmmakers to find new and interesting stories to tell. That is certainly the allure of The Stairs which has a rather unique story to tell.

In 1997 a young boy and his grandfather disappeared in the woods. Not a trace was found of the two. Fast forward 20 years to a group of friends hiking in those same woods. Their weekend gets ruined quickly as it becomes clear that there is something after them. Little do they know they will encounter the same terrors that befell the boy and his grandfather. Both groups encounter “the stairs”, a staircase that seemingly leads to nowhere, but brings terror to those who encounter it.

It is exciting to see new filmmakers bringing something different to the genre. The ideas of this film are all very interesting. There are creatures, ghosts, distortion of time, and plenty of gore to go with it. Coming up with unique ideas in this day and age feels like a huge challenge so it is quite a feat that these filmmakers came up with something that feels fresh. The ideas are perhaps the best part of the film as it does seem to falter when putting the ideas together. The ultimate execution of The Stairs did not work for me. It seems that the filmmakers could not get past their interesting ideas to make it feel fully flushed out. I had hoped that they would let loose and go crazy with their strange ideas but they reel it in to make it an ultimately middling horror flick.

There are plenty of interesting horror elements to the film. The idea of the stairs, something totally unnatural and out of place in the wilderness is a fun concept. It is certainly what drew me to see this film. It does put forth some unique elements, however it never feels clear how these things are connected. What the stairs actually are and how they are connected to the creatures and manipulation of space and time is unclear. This left me slightly disappointed given the alluring plot synopsis. There are certainly some Lovecraftian elements that the filmmakers are playing with but much like Lovecraft’s short stories, this feels better served as a short feature. Given how little is thought out or explained, it does not really earn its run time. The creature effects are one of the strongest aspects of the film. The creatures they encounter look like one of the monsters of the week out of an X-Files episode, in the best way. It is always refreshing to see some fun use of practical effects in films like this and they certainly went for it.

Part of the reason much of this does not work is because the characters we follow are not ones that we feel invested in. The best characters are the ones we leave behind in the 90s while we spend the rest of the film with a band of friends who seem just as disinterested in each other as the audience is to them. All of them seem like caricatures of actual people. We are not given anyone to love enough that we want them to pull through and be the hero and we also do not hate anyone enough to enjoy their suffering. The overall indifference to the characters is a detriment to the film.

While I had hoped to get something more from The Stairs I am still impressed with their rather odd and unique idea. Their use of creature effects and practical effects are plenty of fun and are worth checking out. Many of the issues the film has are not that different from many first time directors and writers. If they keep churning out interesting ideas hopefully the rest will fall into place for their future projects.