The People Under the Stairs (1991)

A.J. Langer: Alice

Photos 

Quotes 

• Fool : Well I don't want in, I want out.

  Alice : Sometimes in is out.

• Alice : People have tried.

  Fool : You mean, the people in the cellar?

  Alice : [nods] 

  Fool : Who are they?

  Alice : Mommy and Daddy looked a long time to find the perfect boy child, but each one they found turned out bad. Some saw things they weren't supposed to, others heard too much, others talked back. Daddy cut out the bad parts, and put the boys in the cellar, one by one. They get flashlights and food of some kind. I suppose they're happy in their own way.

  Fool : Yeah right. What about you? How come they haven't put you in the cellar?

  Alice : I do not see, or hear, or speak evil. It's the only way.

  Fool : [hears screaming from within the walls]  What is that?

  Alice : What?

  Fool : That yelling! What is that?

  Alice : Well, that's Roach.

  Fool : Roach?

  Alice : That's who Daddy's hunting. See, Daddy hates Roach because he got out of the cellar and into the walls, and now Daddy can't find him.

• Fool : My name is Fool. What's yours?

  Alice : [shyly]  Alice.

  Fool : Don't be scared. You never seen a brother before?

  Alice : Never had a brother.

  Fool : No, I mean a black dude. There's black folks in this neighborhood.

  Alice : Neighborhood?

  Fool : The neighborhood. You know, outside.

  Alice : Well, that's outside, not in here.

  Fool : So you get outside, don't you?

  Alice : [shakes her head] 

  Fool : You sayin' never?

  Alice : Can't get out. No one ever has.

  Fool : Well, I'm gonna get out. I'm a whole other thing.

• Ruby Williams : What're you gonna do, shoot us all?

  Woman : You'll do!

  Alice : No!

  [drops out of the ceiling and knocks the Woman's head against the floor] 

  Ruby Williams : Damn, she knocked that bitch cold!

  Second man : Look at her, what they doing to her in there?

• Alice : He said he killed you!

  Fool : He was exaggerating.

• Fool : [after Roach rescues him from "Daddy"]  Thanks.

  Roach : [smiles and nods] 

  Fool : [to Alice]  He doesn't talk much, does he?

  Alice : His tongue's cut out.

  Roach : [opens his mouth and shows a severed stump] 

  Alice : Mommy caught him trying to call for help one day, and Daddy had to teach him to...

  Fool : Speak no evil, right?

  Alice : [nods] 

  Fool : Your father's one sick mother, you know that? Actually, your mother's one sick mother, too!

  Alice : Shhh! You're speaking evil! They'd kill you if they heard a word you just said.

• Man : Some niggers robbed the store.

  Woman : Again? May they burn in hell.

  Man : I'm very tense from this.

  Woman : You have one of your headaches?

  Man : Ooh... very VERY tense about this.

  Woman : Alice has been bad. She's been feeding that thing between the walls again.

  Alice : No... no...

  Woman : Remember not to bruise her face.

  [Woman leaves. Man begins taking off his belt to punish Alice] 

  Man : Bad girls... burn in hell.

• Fool : Listen Alice, they're not your real parents.

  Alice : What?

  Fool : They're not. They're not even husband and wife. They stole you, like they did Roach and all the others. They're a bunch of rotten baby snatchers.

  Alice : You're just saying that...

  Fool : My grandfather Booker told me. He wouldn't lie to me.

• Alice : [to the woman]  Go to hell!

• Alice : Roach is my friend.

  Fool : Roach? I'm Poindexter.

  Roach : [tries to mumble his name] 

  Fool : Everybody calls me Fool.

  Roach : Foo...?

  Fool : You sure got the names, huh?

  [notices Alice's basket of homemade dolls] 

  Fool : This Leroy? You did this? Why you make these?

  Alice : To hold the souls of burglars when they died. Or salesmen, workmen, other people who saw too much.