The Landlord (2009)

            “I thought maybe we could...hack something,” is my favorite line from Emil Hyde’s The Landlord, and fittingly sets the mood for the rest of the movie.  The gist of this comedy/horror tale is this: Tyler (portrayed by Derek Dziak) owns this building that is possessed by demons.  He keeps renting out the apartment to different tenants, and then the demons residing in the building eat the people that have moved in.  After viewers get an eyeful of the demons, and come to understand their passion for human flesh, Tyler finds a new tenant that he has a bit of a crush on.  Wackiness ensues.

            Some of my favorite scenes in this film include the first motel scene – which is totally random and pretty hilarious, and the movie the ‘clinic’ shows about abortion as murder.  I would not, however, rank this movie in the Shaun of the Dead category.  Some of the acting is good, some of it is not.  I felt that Rom Barkhordar portraying the demon Rabisu fell short in several places.  Some of that may not have been his fault - he would have been better without the old-worldy style speech and better makeup.  The infomercial scene with Barkhordar was charming, though, and kept me intrigued with the character. 

            In my humble opinion, the makeup for the two main demons could have been more inspired.  One looked like a dog, and one looked like his chin had HPV.  The special effects also fell short, I think they could have been omitted and the scenery could have had more budgeting.  Another weak point for this movie was the score, in that there wasn’t much of one in the beginning and then when it was added the sound was terrible. My final criticism has only to do with how the vampires were portrayed; they carried an umbrella to ‘block’ the sun in one scene, but were constantly out during the day in others.  All I ask for is consistency (and if those fiends can walk about in the day, an explanation!).  I have also read reviews that call these things ‘demons,’ but in the movie they call them ‘undead,’ and viewers can see them drinking blood – so I’m going with ‘vampires,’ to clear up any confusion.    

            Though I have some negative feedback here, I did find this movie worth watching.  It has an interesting concept that could have been developed better if the director wasn’t working with such a small budget.  There was enough lightheartedness in the film to make it silly, and yet enough gore to satiate those who are watching the film for its horror aspects.  The script is probably the best aspect of the film, so if you give it a whirl try and look past the low budget and enjoy the concept and dialogue.   Number of killers?  Four at least.  Body count? Around six.  Boob count? Zero. Cheap thrills? Zero. Actual creeps given? Zero.  Entertainment? Indeed. Raven’s Scream Meter says: 3 out of 5 screams.  Looking forward to seeing more from Hyde in the future.