Review of The Landlord (2009) by Dave R — 26 Oct 2010

When I started watching, I experienced a flush of dread. "Oh no," I thought, "another no-budget horror video that tries too hard to be funny and has zero production values. This is going to be awful." I was right about the no-budget part, but I was wrong about the rest. "The Landlord" is cheap, campy, silly, and a TON of fun.

A slob of a landlord takes care of the building owned by his sister, a very dirty cop. The problem is that the place is inhabited by the demon queen Lammashtu and her servant-demon, Rabisu. The tenants who move into the second floor apartment are getting eaten by the demons before they've even had a chance to pay a month's rent. The sister has a deal in place with the demons; they take over the city's drug trade and she gives them victims. When a pregnant divorcee moves into the apartment, Lammashtu wants to eat the baby, so they need to keep her alive until she delivers. In the meanwhile, the sister's deal goes wrong when she kills one of the demons for doing things wrong, and the landlord, his sister and the new tenant are fighting for their lives.

There's some very funny stuff in this flick. Rabisu is played by Rom Barkhordar with terrific comedic timing. He's a demon who, when he's not chewing up a victim, watches home shopping shows and steals the landlord's credit card to buy himself kitchen appliances and kitschy pewter figurines. He largely steals the show, though Derek Dziak, in the title role, plays the straight man very well. They more than make up for the flick's complete lack of a budget, and the humor they add helps to smooth over the amateurish use of computer graphics that occur whenever the demons appear or disappear, or when a gateway to hell is opened in the basement.

Despite looking like it was made for about $50, despite the demon queen wearing a rubber dog mask with a mouth that doesn't move when she speaks, despite everything that should make "The Landlord" terrible, it isn't. This is independent micro-budget horro-comedy at its best. Emil Hyde has managed to write and direct a flick with a good, witty story that deserves to be seen. I look forward to what he does next.