Sean Whalen Movies

This lightweight horror movie is geared towards younger audiences as it follows the exploits of a little boy who is firmly convinced that the woman his father plans to marry is really a horrible monster in disguise. It all begins when his rather dull architect father George, as compared to young Todd's highly imaginative and much-loved grandfather, takes a job designing the immense country home for the seductively beautiful Denise. In time, Todd begins believing that scaly green monsters called tropopkins, are living in the forest near her house. Suddenly, his mother mysteriously vanishes and Todd is sent to live with his grandparents while his father completes his job. Six months pass and George returns with Denise, his new fiancee in tow. Things happen that cause Todd to suspect this step-mother-to-be is the leader of the tropopkins. No one believes him and Todd is sent into therapy. He remains convinced though and continues trying to postpone the wedding until he, his grandfather, his older sister and her boy friend Phlegm and can figure out how to destroy her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wes Craven wrote and directed this surrealistic horror-comedy, which was inspired by a true story of parents keeping their children locked in a basement for years. Fool (Brandon Adams), an African-American teen, breaks into the home of the wealthy landlords who evicted his family from a ghetto tenement. A fortune in gold coins is rumored to exist inside, but Fool discovers that the mansion is a chamber of horrors presided over by a pair of incestuous, serial killer siblings (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie). The twisted couple has also tried to raise a succession of kidnapped boys. Each botched effort is handled the same way -- the victim's eyes, ears and tongues are removed, and he's sent to live in the sealed-off basement, where a colony of similarly deformed "brothers" resides. Fool is able to avoid the evil lovers as he moves through the house's maze of hidden passageways. He discovers that the occupants have a daughter, Alice (A.J. Langer), who has survived their abuse, so he rescues her and they attempt to free the "people under the stairs." Adams, who made his feature debut with in film, was familiar to viewers as the star of rock singer Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (1988). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide