Prime Video

Watch Wicked Stepmother with a subscription on Prime Video, or rent on Prime Video.

Steve D

Sad to see Davis reduced to this.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

09/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Daughter is convinced her new stepmom is a witch. A comedy but a weak one. Larry Cohen is usually much better. Bette Davis' final film was not a particularly good sendoff.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Well, they don't make them like this anymore. Mostly an homage to screwball comedies... Except it never gets as wacky as you would hope. I noticed Bette Davis disappeared from the movie after a point and apparently she became deathly ill and died 8 months after the movie came out. Eep. The MVP of the movie is Colleen Camp! I know her mainly as Yvette from "Clue", but she shows she has comedic chops. I think she fully understood the tone of this film; it's a pity the script and directing lets her down. Sadly, Larry Cohen in a scramble to rewrite the film as they were filming totally lost his mind and started losing track of all the characters and subplots. Had things been weaved together badly the film would've been much stronger for it. As it stands, it is a very messy movie - with a laughably terrible special effects driven finale. So we have a comedy that is light on laughs... Incoherent on story... But Colleen Camp showing a career that might have been had she not married the head of Paramount. And Bette Davis's last hurrah in an Ed Wood-ian quality final role. Verdict: Worth watching on cable.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Well, they don't make them like this anymore. Mostly an homage to screwball comedies... Except it never gets as wacky as you would hope. I noticed Bette Davis disappeared from the movie after a point and apparently she became deathly ill and died 8 months after the movie came out. Eep. The MVP of the movie is Colleen Camp! I know her mainly as Yvette from "Clue", but she shows she has comedic chops. I think she fully understood the tone of this film; it's a pity the script and directing lets her down. Sadly, Larry Cohen in a scramble to rewrite the film as they were filming totally lost his mind and started losing track of all the characters and subplots. Had things been weaved together badly the film would've been much stronger for it. As it stands, it is a very messy movie - with a laughably terrible special effects driven finale. So we have a comedy that is light on laughs... Incoherent on story... But Colleen Camp showing a career that might have been had she not married the head of Paramount. And Bette Davis's last hurrah in an Ed Wood-ian quality final role. Verdict: Worth watching on cable.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I'm a huge fan of writer/director/producer Larry Cohen, who's made excellent low budget films in just about every genre, but this comedy just felt awkward and was sadly not all that funny. Bette Davis plays the titular wicked stepmother to Colleen Camp after she marries her father, Lionel Stander. The film was not helped by behind-the-scenes strife when Davis quite the film partway into production over conflicts with director Cohen, who then abruptly wrote her out of the script and had her character transform into Barbara Carrera. The film does boast a good cast of familiar faces, including David Rasche, Tom Bosley, Richard Moll, Seymour Cassel, and Evelyn Keyes, but the film's real failing is that it's not very exciting or funny. Camp gets an A+ for effort and Cohen gives the film an enjoyably light tone, but the overall film just isn't funny, making it a bit tedious to watch.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Silly, stupid and nonsensical. If only Bette had stopped one sooner than The Whales of August would have been her final film not her few minutes in this piece of junk. A pity.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Larry Cohen

Director

Bette Davis

Miranda Pierpoint

Barbara Carrera

Priscilla

Colleen Camp

Jenny Fisher

David Rasche

Steve Fisher

Lionel Stander

Sam

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

View more photos

Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

Awful save for some moments of unintended comedy.

Rated: C-

Feb 12, 2006

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

After going on vacation, Steve (David Rasche) and Jenny Fisher (Colleen Camp) come home to find that Jenny's elderly father has remarried. What's more, his new wife is a real witch -- both literally and figuratively. Her name is Miranda Pierpoint (Bette Davis), and she quickly upends the couple's quiet household. Jenny tries in vain to break the spell Miranda has cast on her father, but her problems get bigger when Miranda's sultry daughter, Priscilla (Barbara Carrera), moves in.

Director: Larry Cohen
Production Co: Larco Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 3, 1989, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 23, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $43.7K
Runtime: 1h 32m
Sound Mix: Surround

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch!

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Let's keep in touch!

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

Celebrity

No Results Found

Wicked Stepmother

Where to Watch