History Film / ThePeopleUnderTheStairs

* CoolGuns: Daddy's weapons of choice are a pump-action shotgun and a Desert Eagle. It's a slightly interesting footnote that both the guns used in the film are expensive import models. For all Mommy and Daddy's hoarding, they like the pricey hardware.

* MinorPlotRevealsMajorCrime: Two men attempt to burgle the house of one of the men's former landlords to steal money for his dying mother. In doing so, they discover that the landlords [[spoiler:have been abducting children for years]]. Director Creator/WesCraven based the plot on a news story he read in the 1970s about two burglars who broke into a Los Angeles household and in doing so, revealed to the police two children who had been locked away by their parents.

* MinorPlotRevealsMajorCrime: Two men attempt to burgle the house of one of the men's former landlords to steal money for his dying mother. In doing so, they discover that the landlords have been abducting children for years. Director Creator/WesCraven based the plot on a news story he read in the 1970s about two burglars who broke into a Los Angeles household and in doing so, revealed to the police two children who had been locked away by their parents.

[[quoteright:302:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d2fd1fdfe902b5c976974bd837f37a98.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:302:If these walls could talk, they’d ''scream''.]]

''The People Under the Stairs'' is a 1991 [[HorrorComedy horror comedy movie]] directed by Creator/WesCraven. It's the story of a young boy, [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname called Fool]] (Brandon Adams), whose family is about to be evicted from their apartment by the evil landlords, who want to develop their building once they're gone. Fool's mother is sick and needs an operation, but Fool's sister can't come up with enough money. Fool wants to be a doctor, but his family doesn't have enough money to ever send him to medical school. Fortunately, his sister's boyfriend Leroy (Creator/VingRhames) and his accomplice Spencer (Jeremy Roberts) have a plan to rob the landlords' house; and they need Fool's help to do it.

Breaking into the house proves to be the easy part; it's getting back out that's the problem. The house is built like a fortress, and designed to keep something in. Electrified doors, a vicious guard dog, strange creatures in the basement, and a bizarrely extensive security system prevent them from leaving before the owners return. "Mommy" (Creator/WendyRobie) and "Daddy" (Creator/EverettMcGill) are back, and they're [[AxCrazy armed and crazy]]. They quickly dispatch Leroy and feed him to their "sons", a pack of mutilated boys that they keep captive in the basement, and set out to hunt Fool through the house. With the help of their daughter Alice (AJ Langer) and a boy called Roach (Creator/SeanWhalen), Fool attempts to escape the house and reveal the truth to the world.

* FreezeFrameBonus: In the room (which appears to be some sort of religious shrine) where Man attempts to impale Fool through the wall with his bayonet, a framed picture of Ronald Reagan himself can be seen for a split second as the camera quickly pans across the screen.

* FreezeFrameBonus: In the room (which appears to be some sort of religious shrine) where Man attempts to impale Fool through the wall with his bayonet, a framed picture of Ronald Reagan himself can be seen for a split second as the camera quickly pans across the screen. Fitting.

* WhamLine: "Now you be careful, that brother-sister act you messed with are ''evil'' plain and simple."

* KidHero: Despite only being thirteen years old, Leroy repeatedly evades and outwits the Robesons, ultimately freeing their prisoners and getting them both killed.

* EvilMatriarch: Mommy Robeson, who is an abusive mother to her daughter and sons, as well as an implied willing participant in Daddy's spree of murder and cannibalism. It's implied several times that she may actually be the dominant figure in their relationship. [[spoiler:That said, when she gives Daddy an ArmorPiercingSlap for saying she should have let him kill Alice, he responds by grabbing her neck one-handed and starting to choke her.]]

* EvilMatriarch: Mommy Robeson, who is an abusive mother to her daughter and sons, as well as an implied willing participant in Daddy's spree of murder and cannibalism. It's implied several times that she may actually be the dominant figure in their relationship. [[spoiler:That said, when she gives Daddy an ArmorPiercingSlap for saying she should have let him kill Alice, he responds by grabbing her neck one-handed and starting to choke her.]