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The Landlord
USA 2009
produced by Emil Hyde for Massive Ego Productions
directed by Emil Hyde
starring Derek Dziak, Erin Myers, Rom Barkhordar, Lory Myers, Michelle Courvais, Rob McLean, Brian Amidei, Joan McGrath, Ezekiel Brown, Kurt Ehrmann, Brion Bliss, Amanda Cohen, Mike Ryan, Matt Griffo, Jessica Hardy, Dan Kiggins, Mike Madgiak, Refugio Molina, Leah Graham, Eileen Montelione, Phil O'Neil, Paula C. Stevens
written by Emil Hyde, music by Karen Sandvoss, visual effects by Phil Johnson
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Tyler (Derek Dziak) is the landlord of an apartment building that has
one little problem: all tenants living on the first floor end up eaten up
by demon Rabisu (Rom Barkhordar) and demon goddess Lamashtu (Lori Myers),
which is bad because all the tenants die before Tyler is able to collect
even the first rent ... but other than that, Tyler has long arranged with
the demons (who eventually turn out to be his own parents) to live in
peaceful co-habitation. Sure, two cops (Ezekiel Brown, Kurt Ehrmann) are
on Tyler's trail, but eventually, the demons take care of them as well.
Then though, Tyler falls in love with his new tenant Donna (Erin Myers),
who is on the run from her husband and pregnant - and the demons refrain
from eating her only because they want her baby, and instead keep her in a
forcefield ... and when Donna finds out Tyler is in league with the demons,
he has a whole lot of explaining to do. Tyler decides to save Donna from
his demonic parents with the help of a psychic, but she seems to make
matters only worse before being killed by upstairs neighbour Ms Lipinski
(Joan McGrath), who's also in league with the demons somehow. Then though
Lamashtu turns psycho and all power-hungry, which makes Ms Lipinski and
Rabisu turn against her, and ultimately they all vanish in the explosion
of Tyler's house, only Tyler and Donna escape - and while he sees himself
as the knight in shining armour, she runs from him as fast and as far as
she can. A barely related subplot shows Tyler's cop-sister (Michelle
Courvais) hooking up with a gang of vampires and becoming one of them. For
the most part, The Landlord is a pretty hilarious horror comedy,
with especially Rom Barkhordar as slightly idiotic and tv-obsessed demon
getting lots of laughs. But while The Landlord is pretty ok on the
comedy, it's not so good concerning storytelling, and eventually,
everything funny that happened before amounts to nothing more than a
conventional and essentially fun-free magic finale that's not half as
exciting as it tries to be. Too bad, with a better script, this could have
been a cult horror comedy, like it is, it's just ok entertainment with a
few really good laughs.
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