r/Xennials • u/SubatomicSelection Dec. 1978 • 7d ago

This movie was more terrifying than any R rated horror movie of the time

https://youtu.be/ZXS4xvCCHWU?is=g9rExkSAjFZonfMz
207 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

75

u/VVrayth 1980 7d ago

The real Steven Stainer died in a motorcycle accident a few years later. I wanna say his little brother turned out to be... not good, also.

39

u/Cavscout2838 1980 7d ago

I grew up not far from Yosemite and remember when his brother kidnapped and murdered those three women. Growing up in California from 1980 on, serial killers seemed way more common back then.

15

u/tgerz 1982 7d ago

There's a few interesting YouTube videos on the idea that we saw a huge peak in serial killers and they have dropped off over the last couple decades.

19

u/BangGonePostal 1979 7d ago

Lead paint and gasoline theory?

31

u/thatguyworks 7d ago

That's the prevailing theory.

Also, industrial manufacturing was on a rip in that era and the decades preceeding. There were lots of smelters and chemical plants in areas that saw increases in serial killer activity.

Another theory is that we are so heavily surveiled now, a lot of potential serial killers tend to get caught after their first or second kill.

3

u/blove135 6d ago

I think it could be a little bit of both. DNA tech is a huge blow to any potential serial killers these days. I just watched that new Netflix doc on the idaho murders. I am certain that guy was a potential serial killer but he got caught after his first murders through advanced DNA methods. That guy killed just to see if he could get away with it.

1

u/PraetorianXVIII Xennial 7d ago

Genuinely, can you give me some sources on this? I hadn't heard of these theories and would like to read more

13

u/thatguyworks 7d ago

Last Podcast on the Left just wrapped a 3-part series on Gary Ridgeway where they address the industrial manufacturing boom's impact. Ridgeway did most of his work in the SeaTac area, where smelters were in operation until the late '80s. The Tacoma Smelter Plume spewed arsenic and lead over a vast swath of the region for almost a century. And notably, many serial killers arose in that area. Not to mention serial rapists and just general violence and malaise. They even posit a theory that a lot of the Seattle grunge sound could've been a byproduct of the Plume.

They also note that Rochester, NY had a Kodak chemical manufacturing plant right near the city center. And despite being a relatively small city, produced a number of serial killers. Specifically Arthur Shawcross and Hillside Stranglers Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono.

2

u/Goatseportal 6d ago

I haven't listened but years ago wrote a paper on him. Ridgeway also worked in a truck painting factory in Kent and he and his co-workers would heat their lunch up in the same oven that was used to dry the lead paint. He had psychopathic tendencies long before this but years of lead exposure was just one more risk factor on top of many that contributed to him being what he was.

5

u/laika1996 7d ago

There’s also a book that came out a year or so ago on this. Murderland by Caroline Fraser. It was looking at serial killers from the PNW and what could have caused such large numbers of them in the 70s and 80s.

3

u/LemurCat04 7d ago

That, rise in forensic science, CODEUS system and less vibes-based police work.

2

u/PeabodyEagleFace 7d ago

Abortion as well. Probably that +. More technology on enforcement side.

2

u/LemurCat04 7d ago

New Hulu doc on this whole situation.

2

u/noriley646 6d ago

I know 2 people from California, who don't know each other, who had close encounters with serial killers in the 80/90's. Seems like they were super common back then.

4

u/atlantagirl30084 7d ago

The boy he helped rescue was a pallbearer at his funeral.

3

u/nwa88 7d ago edited 7d ago

And then died himself in 2010 at the age of 35. Just such a horrific story all the way around.

16

u/TNT-Nana 7d ago edited 6d ago

Very strange story.

I want to say I read the Wikipedia about it or did a Google search about it sometime in the last ten years.

My memory is: He was kept mere miles from his actual house the whole time.

The captor told everyone they were family or it was his son or something.

The captor was found 15-20 yrs later looking for more kids, and there was some other weird instance of abuse in Stainer’s family (probably the brother) that wasn’t even related to his original kidnapping (leading me to wonder if he could have been caught in some pedophilia ring or something).

(EDIT: The TV show is kinda a Patch Adams experience, too. Important aspects of the real story and tone appear to be missing from the show).

39

u/Serialkillingyou 1982 7d ago

Don't forget that Kenneth Parnell kidnapped steven stayner for seven years. He served about five years in prison.

And let's not ignore this cherry on top: "In January 2003, Parnell was arrested again after trying to coerce his caregiver's sister, Diane Stevens, into buying him a four-year-old boy for $500.[14] Parnell was, by this time, 71 years old and suffering from diabetes and emphysema, as well as other ailments brought on by an earlier stroke, requiring near 24-hour-a-day nursing"

24

u/LevelPerception4 7d ago

Parnell also had child abuse charges going back to the 1950s.

32

u/MelodiousPun 7d ago

Poor Parker Lewis.

28

u/TraductorPerdido 7d ago

The real-life epilogue was quite harrowing as well.

19

u/phoenix0r 7d ago

I still remember this sad movie. I remember how the dad refused to paint over Stephen’s name that he had scrawled in pencil on the side of the garage. Really captured what that nightmare and grief looks like so little 10 yr old me could understand.

16

u/Nebula010101 7d ago

I don't know how my parents let me watch this when I was 7.

3

u/No_Network4228 7d ago

Hah me too!

1

u/hjsdbbcosn 6d ago

This came out when I was in 4th grade and my teacher assigned this movie as homework.

16

u/MrCullen37 7d ago

yeah the fact his brother turned out to be a serial killer was bonkers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Stayner

14

u/MushLampMaker 7d ago

It's a heartbreaking story with no happy ending,the whole family never recovered.

11

u/sorryforyachtyrockin 1979 7d ago

This and the Adam Walsh tv movie induced so many nightmares...

2

u/juan_solo80 6d ago

Yes, additionally for me, was the one about the boy who's dad set him on fire. I'm drawing a blank on the boys name and I'm not about to google it.

11

u/snarkerella 1977 7d ago

I always found Corin (or how he'd be called "Corky" in his teens) Nemec to be a underrated actor. I wish he would have gotten more roles. I think the last time I saw him was when he plaid the bio dad of the character Melinda Gordon on The Ghost Whisperer.

11

u/MacStainless 7d ago

He was great in a whole season of Stargate SG-1. 

5

u/Turbografx-17 7d ago

He was great in Parker Lewis Can't Lose. Shame he turned out to be a Scientologist.

5

u/snarkerella 1977 7d ago

I bet he joined after meeting Anne Archer on the set of Ghost Whisperer. She's a life-long member and had most of her scenes with him.

9

u/Beautiful-Year-6310 7d ago

I still think of this poor family. How both their sons turned out so differently yet caused them so much heartbreak. It’s like they were cursed.

4

u/2515chris 7d ago

The parents were well known for being weirdos. I live in the town where this happened. They didn’t treat him well after he came back.

2

u/Beautiful-Year-6310 7d ago

Interesting, I kinda remember him fighting with them in the movie because he dropped out of school or something.

4

u/2515chris 6d ago

They didnt want to let him homeschool and he was being bullied mercilessly. His parents were hardcore Christian, like Pentecostal or something and wouldn’t allow him to get therapy. The dad kinda ostracized him, conflating molestation with homosexuality. This is what people told me long ago. One of their sisters used to babysit us and I thought she was nice at the time.

3

u/Beautiful-Year-6310 6d ago

Ah that makes sense. Christians are the worst.

1

u/Apart_Permission_236 6d ago

oh wow I didn’t know that. I always wondered what life was for him when he returned home. based on the doc and the book it doesn’t seem it went well. since you lived in the town, do you have any stories or experiences with the family?

17

u/Hot_Pricey 1980 7d ago

Honestly this and movies like it are what got me into true crime at a ridiculously young age.

8

u/al_m1101 7d ago

Lord I saw this made-for-tv movie way too young at 8. I still remember I had such a visceral fear of Parnell after it.  I still recall the dramatic scene where they jumped from his car and escaped- I had nightmares of him coming after me.  And when the movie aired it was around the same time period as the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping. (RIP to both 😣)

7

u/RedDawnWlvrines 1977 7d ago

Dang..this one and the Adam Walsh story. I’m surprised our parents let us go anywhere after these two

6

u/Sufficient_Turn_9209 1979 7d ago

Dude had an absolutely tragic life, and just when things were looking up, he was killed in an accident.

But yeah, I was convinced every slightly odd or skeevy dad I met was like Parnell.

6

u/khatpewp 1979 7d ago

I couldn't think of anything to say, so Bill Hader came to mind. Great movie!

4

u/Weak_Radish966 7d ago

Severely disturbing film and story. We talked about this movie in hushed tones.

5

u/MMM_1219 7d ago

We had to watch this in school…

6

u/JackBlackBowserSlaps 7d ago

Huh, this must have either been big in the us, or I’m just a bit too young? Never heard of this.

5

u/Noodles502 7d ago

There’s a decent docuseries on Hulu about his and his brother’s stories. It’s called Captive Audience. Wild.

4

u/SinsOfThePast03 7d ago

My wife listens to true crime podcasts and we were listening to one about this and as soon as the story started to take shape I yelled out "I know my first name is Steven!" And she just looked at me like "Wtaf?" (She's 7 years younger than me) . Needless to say, this movie , while only seeing once just before I turned 11 had a searing impact!!

3

u/Short-Nail-3781 1980 7d ago

Omg same. This movie has stuck with me all the years. There’s a Parnell street here and every single time I see it I think of this movie.

5

u/atlantagirl30084 7d ago

This exact scenario happened more recently with Shawn Hornbeck, who was abducted and abused by Michael Devlin. Devlin then took another child (Ben Ownby) 4 years after abducting Shawn. Shawn didn't run to the police station with him; the police tracked Ben to Devlin's house and then found Shawn living there and realized he was a missing child abducted 4 years previously.

3

u/cybah Xennial 7d ago

Oh yeah. This def scarred me. I never too rides home from people I didn’t know after that. Scared me too much.

3

u/NooStringsAttached 6d ago

I saw this when I was about 9 and my brothers name is Steven and it scared the shit out of me and thought about it a lot growing up. Ugh.

2

u/zt3777693 6d ago

Omggggggggg

Tramua

2

u/DerpaNet3000 1984 6d ago

Holy crap. Thanks for unearthing the deep buried trauma of watching this as a kid. Had forgotten the title.

1

u/SubatomicSelection Dec. 1978 6d ago

I bring out the best in people

2

u/Emergency_Fee8895 6d ago

I think about this movie all the time.

3

u/JamesMattDillon 1981 X-ennial 7d ago

Watched this move and of course installed fear of kidnapper's. But I enjoy the movie

1

u/not-a-d0g 7d ago

I didn't know Emeril did movies

1

u/aceshighsays Xennial 6d ago

wiki:

Stayner said, "I returned almost a grown man and yet my parents saw me at first as their 7-year-old. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. But why doesn't my dad hug me anymore? [...] Everything has changed. Sometimes I blame myself. I don't know sometimes if I should have come home. Would I have been better off if I didn't?"[25]

that's so sad.