With Halloween approaching, a horror movie featuring a Montgomery County native has found its way back into the spotlight.
The People Under the Stairs, the 1991 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven, has gained renewed attention as part of Peacock’s Halloween collection of scary movies. The film features Sean Whalen, a Montgomery County native and 1982 graduate of Sherwood High School, in one of his earliest and most memorable roles.
Whalen plays Roach, one of several victims being held captive inside the walls of a home owned by the film’s deranged villains, known as Mommy and Daddy. Initially presented as a frightening presence lurking inside the house, Roach becomes an ally to the film’s young protagonist, Fool, helping him navigate the home and attempt to escape.
The movie follows Fool as he and two accomplices break into the heavily fortified home of his family’s landlords during an attempted burglary. Once inside, he discovers that the house contains a much darker secret, with children imprisoned and mutilated by the couple and hidden within its walls and passageways.
The film was Whalen’s first movie role and helped launch a career that would eventually include appearances in Twister, Batman Returns, Men in Black, That Thing You Do!, Never Been Kissed, Lost, Superstore and numerous other movies and television shows.
Whalen was born in Washington D.C., and grew up as the youngest of four children in the Silver Spring and Olney areas. After graduating from Sherwood High School in 1982, he headed west and earned a degree from UCLA. While pursuing acting, he worked as a waiter and trained at places including the Groundlings and Playhouse West before beginning to land commercials and television roles.
Two years after The People Under the Stairs, Whalen appeared in one of the most recognizable commercials of the 1990s. His 1993 “Got Milk?” commercial featured Whalen as a history enthusiast attempting to answer a radio contest question about who shot Alexander Hamilton while his mouth was full of peanut butter. The commercial was directed by Michael Bay and became a major moment in Whalen’s career.
On the commercial’s 30th anniversary, Whalen said the ad “changed the course of my life,” explaining that Steven Spielberg’s appreciation for the commercial ultimately helped him land his role in Twister, which provided another major boost to his film career.
More than three decades after Whalen first crawled through the walls as Roach, The People Under the Stairs has developed a lasting following among horror fans. Its inclusion in Peacock’s Halloween programming is introducing the Wes Craven film to another round of viewers, and providing another local connection for Montgomery County horror fans this Halloween season.
Whalen has continued working in the entertainment industry as an actor, writer, producer, acting coach and teacher.
