I mean David was so sick and evil, Kelly was hot and okay but was kind of stupid, Susan was okay but should have been smart enough to know something was going on with her soon to be husband. And Jay and Jackie were pretty annoying to me. Michael howerver i thought seemed smart wanted to protect his family and was the only person who known David was up to something and he seemed like a nice person. Maybe it's just me.
shareEveryone was kind of stupid. Including Michael for not calling the cops or anything. They all thought they could handle it themselves.
Kelly - "Nah, you're imagining things" at pretty much everything Michael said, whatever evidence he presented to her. If someone I was close to told me someone they knew was a serial killer, I'd at least hear them out. That's not the kind of thing you just say "Oh, you're crazy" and ignore just in case there's some truth behind it.
Susan - Thinking he could do no wrong, even when he physically harms her son, and everyone around her tells her he's suspicious because of all the suspicious things he does she's just all "whatever, I love him."
Jay - After finding out he lied about pretty much everything he knew about him, he confronts him in a mostly empty house. Why not go there in the daytime, when other people are around, or at least tell his wife first? Do anything other than confront the guy alone, he obviously lies about his past, who knows what else he's lying about?
Jackie - She keeps asking for his information when it's obvious he's not going to give it to her. It's clear there's something going on, there's a reason he's not doing it, don't let him know how suspicious of him you are. And then she emails Susan instead of calling her? How does she know Susan will read that at all? If she's so suspicious of David, and thinks he's up to something, how does she know he isn't intercepting her emails? Face to face communication would be best, but at least she'd know Susan got the information with a call.
Mrs. Cutter - "I saw a guy that looks like your boyfriend on America's Most Wanted, he meets recently divorced women with kids and works his way into their lives and kills them. I just figured I'd tell you instead of calling the cops or even America's Most Wanted's tip line, oh well, have a nice day, hope he doesn't kill you." Related to this, I'd also like to add a note to Susan's stupidity - "OK, crazy lady, the guy who's past I know virtually nothing about can't be that guy, go back to crazy land.... HEY, HONEY, YOU'D NEVER BELIEVE WHAT THAT CRAZY WOMAN NEXT DOOR JUST TOLD ME!..." And she's dead the next day.
Then there's Michael, with all of that evidence building up and doing nothing about it. The lies he catches David in, the suspicious things David does. Mrs. Cutter dying after saying she saw David on America's Most Wanted, David knowing how she died without being told, the website in the recent history, the picture that looks like him on the site, the picture he takes of him that disappears from his phone. David hurting his brother, locking the basement and conveniently losing the key. He could have called the police, he could have anonymously called the police, he could have called America's Most Wanted. Right after he took the picture on his phone, he could have sent it to America's Most Wanted or the police telling them he thinks it's that guy. Instead he decides to break into the basement to find his own evidence, with the only person knowing what he's doing being his girlfriend outside.
At least now if Michael stays with Kelly, he'll instantly win any argument they ever have. "Remember that time I said my stepfather was going to murder my family, and you didn't believe me?" Automatic win.
I think they were all looking for reinforcement and support about their inclinations before they took it elsewhere, that's what the movie was about. The suspicions were mounting and David was constantly disrupting and distracting from it all
I got the feeling Jay wanted a 1 on 1 man-to-man before he took his findings to anyone else and that approach is not unusual. He knew the kids were just upstairs so he probably didn't feel threatened. He'd only discovered Michael was a liar, not a dangerous criminal. Besides Jay seemed like a touch of a rough and tumble guy himself, considering their first confrontation, he probably figured he could handle that guy himself if anything got physical. Reference how Jay got into the house in the first place, he put on a passive, apologetic demeanor with David whereas he could have easily called Michael on his cell to say the cab is pulling up, come open the door and once inside Michael would have known he was was there and Jay could have asked him to excuse he and David because he had something to talk about with him first. Wasn't Jay supposed to be a private investigator?
what I do find odd about that Jay stop-by scene was that he was taking a cab to the airport because when he'd picked up the kids previously he'd had his own (presumably rental) car which can easily be driven to the airport and dropped off there
Unless David had intercepted Jackie's emails to Susan previously or made remarks revealing he could easily access and read them, I don't see how Jackie would have suspected. IRL some couples share open email access and others don't but the ones who do usually make it obvious. she did call Susan but couldn't get her and wanted to let her know before she left for 2 weeks.
The biggest problem with realistically assessing how characters might have reacted is the fact that viewers knew the facts from the opening scenes. Tough to say how audiences might have perceived if it had developed as a who-dun-it with no reference to the remake
"Wasn't Jay supposed to be a private investigator?"
Not sure where you're getting that from.
I'm happiest...in the saddle.