PROBLEM CHILD 1990
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Directed by Dennis Dugan
Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Starring John Ritter, Amy Yasbeck, Jack Warden, Gilbert Gottfried
Synopsis
In this black comedy, wannabe dad Ben Healey adopts an adorable seven-year-old boy, only to find that said child has a penchant for terrorizing anyone who crosses his path.
Why We Love It
Just months before Home Alone would premiere and immediately become Christmas canon, Dennis Dugan’s bad-kid slapstick comedy Problem Child would become an improbable box-office success and a frequent punching bag for critics, who couldn’t foresee that audiences were hungry for darker fare. The late 1980s and early ’90s had offered a slew of men-with-feisty-children comedies, including Parenthood, Kindergarten Cop, and Uncle Buck, but the gloss of the John Hughes era had died with Reagan, and ’90s moviegoers were outgrowing their popped collars.
Writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski had originally envisioned their script as an adult black comedy parodying the avalanche of heartwarming kiddie-friendly flicks. When the studio told them it was the wrong direction, that they needed to appeal to both children and adults, writers and director undertook a frantic overhaul of the script and footage, with extensive reshoots. What they were left with reportedly made the writers cry at the cast screening, as they were now worried their names would be associated with a muddled monstrosity that seemed far too black for children and far too light for adults. Surprise, surprise: kids couldn’t get enough of this story about a near-psychotic child who befriends a serial killer who, in one scene, actually has sex with the kid’s mom while the father is contemplating murdering his new adopted son. Whew!
Dugan would go on to team up with another comic crudester embraced by the juvenile nineties, Adam Sandler, and Problem Child would spawn a moderately successful sequel that would feature a vomit extravaganza etched into the memories of any kid brave enough to view the whole thing—Alexander and Karaszewski later said they intended it to be a John Waters film for children. While critics called the original film and its sequel “tasteless,” kids yearned to emulate this little demon and give their parents some hell. Alexander and Karaszewski say that it took those childhood fans to grow up and become movie executives themselves for the pair to find good work again.