MidWest WeirdFest Review: The Stairs and Marlene
By: Joseph Perry (Twitter - Uphill Both Ways Podcast)
Director Peter “Drago” Tiemann’s The Stairs (2021) starts out like a family fantasy film before diving headlong into horror territory. Eleven-year-old Jesse (Thomas Wethington) and his grandfather Gene (John Schneider) go deer hunting, and a distracted Jesse follows something into the woods. Gene searches for him and finds him being dragged into the mystical titular structure. The story then flashes forward 20 years, when a group of hikers (Adam Korson, Brent Bailey, Josh Crotty, Tyra Colar, and Stacey Oristano) visit the same area, stumbling onto a disturbing supernatural scene and then coming upon the strange stairs themselves.
The Stairs, cowritten by Tiemann and Jason L Lowe, combines the otherworldly and monsters into one film, and creature-feature fans should find the practical effects makeup and creature suits impressive. The ensemble cast, which also includes Kathleen Quinlan as Jesse’s grandmother and Trin Miller as his mother, does a solid job, and Tiemann builds the tension admirably. The Stairs offers a good share of surprising revelations and creepy creature action.
German chiller Marlene stars Cordula Zielonka as the title character, a young woman who has relocated to Berlin to start a new life in the field of art restoration and finds herself being increasingly creeped out by her upstairs neighbor Flo (Thomas Clemens). Writer/director Andreas Resch spends much of the first two acts letting viewers learn much about Marlene, developing her character well and thereby making what happens to her in the third act even more disturbing and affecting. Zielonka gives a brilliant performance as the strong, independent Marlene, and Clemens plays his character, who goes from seemingly socially awkward to much darker places, convincingly. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Matthias Grunsky and featuring a fittingly evocative score, Marlene packs a wallop in the third act and gripping drama throughout.
The Stairs and Marlene screened as part of MidWest WeirdFest, which took place at the Micon Cinemas Downtown in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, from March 5–7, 2021.
Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/) and Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast (decadesofhorror.com/category/classicera/). He also writes for the film websites Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Ghastly Grinning (ghastlygrinning.com), and Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
If you found this article interesting consider becoming a Patreon supporter. That is how When It Was Cool keeps our website and podcasts online, plus you get lots of bonus content including extra and extended podcasts, articles, digital comics, ebooks, and much more. Check out our Patreon Page to see what's up!
If you don't want to use Patreon but still want to support When It Was Cool then how about a one time $5 PayPal donation? Thank you!
