Horror Movie Review: The Landlord

The Landlord

Starring: Derek Dziak, Michelle Courvais, Rom Barkhordar, and Erin Myers

Directed by: Emil Hyde

Written by: Emil Hyde

Production Company: Massive Ego Productions

Release Date: June 1, 2009

When I received my copy of The Landlord, the first thing I noticed was that the production company has a really cool name...Massive Ego Productions. If the movie was as cool as the production company name, then it was going to be a fun evening with The Landlord.

Tyler runs a small apartment building with three flats. He has the usual trials and tribulations involved in dealing with rental property: attracting renters, upkeeping the property, paying bills, and demons. In the uppermost flat resides two resident eating demons.

Tyler's main concern with the demons is the attention they are attracting from local police when his residents turn up missing. All oxymorons aside, Tyler's acceptance of the demons is challenged by new resident Donna. Smitten by his new renter, Tyler must struggle to keep Donna safe from the demons and himself safe from the police. But things can't stay that simple for long as Donna's past comes back to haunt her and Tyler's sister, crooked cop Amy, upsets some local vampires who decide to get revenge. Tell me all those straight forward ghost movies have that much excitement.

The Landlord is a small budget indy work and it shows. There's nothing wrong with that. If you've followed Horror Movie Night Orgy for any length of time, you know I love the energy most B-Movies have, and like most good B-Movies, The Landlord is a horror/comedy.

Tyler, played by Derek Dziak, is likable and funny, but he's overshadowed by Rom Barkhordar as the demon Rabisu. Rabisu is not your typical stoic demon. If demonic power means anything, surely it means you can relax and have fun and that's what Rabisu does from succumbing to his home shopping network addiction (to the detriment of Tyler's bank account), to playing charades to try and get Tyler to say a mystic word that Rabisu is not permitted to say.

The gore is pretty well used and presented convincingly enough. Some of the special effects are bit cheesy, but they do their job, and remember, director Emil Hyde had a small budget. It's not like those many big budget productions with state-of-the-art effects and yet still boring and bad. The story is the most important part of any movie and Hyde does not let us down.

This is Horror Movie Night Orgy, so I can't finish up with out talking about sex appeal. There's no nudity here. But that doesn't mean you can't let your imagination run, especially with strong, forceful, policewoman Amy played beautifully by Michelle Courvais. She's the sexy policewoman we've all wanted to get pulled over by.

The Landlord comes out on May 25th. If you appreciate low budget indy gems, be sure to pick up a copy. You'll have fun.