Review of The Landlord (2009) by Bryan G — 30 May 2010

Ever since I was five years of age, horror has been my favorite genre of film. Now there have been some pretty awesome films to emerge out of the genre over the past ten years, but for the most part the horror films that come out these days aren't much for redeeming value as they are purely for shock and disgust. Often a rather solid horror film will come out, but be followed with a handful of terrible sequels that only bring down the original film instead of expanding on it. And then there are all of the needless remakes to films that were perfectly fine to begin with and audiences still to this day watch. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there isn't much originality these days with horror films.

Writer/director Emil Hyde's The Landlord isn't a groundbreaking horror film. In fact, it is an extremely cheap looking film. The special effects are weak, and the make-up looks as if the make-up artists were using those Halloween face paint kits you see in retail stores. Luckily, I'm not someone who holds budgeting limitations against the film, especially when the film contains a rather interesting story, great characters and a good sense of imagination to itself.

The Landlord is one of those good straight-to-video horror films that overcomes its limitations because it has its head and heart set in the right place. The movie tells the story of Tyler (Derek Dziak), who owns an apartment building that is always in need of new tenants. He has decent rates, there is a lot of space and the apartment is in a decent neighborhood. But he can't keep tenants for too long due to the fact that the apartment is terrorized by two demons, Rabisu (Rom Barkhordar) and Lamashtu (Lori Myers), who murder and eat all of Tyler's tenants. He neglects to mention this nuisance to the people who inquire about renting the room.

For being a low budget film with a lot of acting downfalls, The Landlord steadily builds up and grows on you. It rarely felt dull or empty, and was consistently engaging. I mentioned that there were problems with the acting in the film, but that doesn't hold The Landlord back much thankfully. In fact, I actually liked Emil Hyde's characters a lot despite the weak acting. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously, and has a lot of fun with its story and characters. Someone like Rabisu easily could have been just another mindless monster, but he's not. He has a nice dark sense of humor, much like the entire film, and was more interesting than most new horror film creations these days.

After being jaded with countless horror film duds over the past year or so, it is nice to see that there is still a level of imagination and fun that can be had with the genre. And Emil Hyde proves that he knows a thing or two about making a good, campy horror flick. Here's a film that I hope horror fans will seek out and enjoy. Now why can't Full Moon's newer films be more like The Landlord?