Directed By Antti Jokinen
Starring Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lee Pace and Christopher Lee
Young ER doctor Juliet (Hilary Swank) is scouring New York for a new place to call home after a bad break-up. She finds what seems to be the real estate Holy Grail – a spacious city apartment with a handsome landlord (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a great view and for next to no rent, albeit at the cost of a little noise from an underground train line. She strikes up a flirtatious relationship with landlord Max, but her cosy new home becomes much less appealing when Juliet starts feeling like she’s not alone in her own apartment.
The first US outing for Hammer Film’s newly-revived studio, The Resident might inherit a few dusty gothic crawlspaces and Christopher Lee, but that aside, it’s a generic, workmanlike American psycho-thriller. But to its credit, despite attempting nothing new and carrying an air of familiarity, it’s an entertaining and atmospheric potboiler.
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Swank and Morgan parlay their looks and charisma into effective chemistry, to the point where The Resident is on track to be an engaging enough romantic drama before the stalkery horror plot creeps in. And when it does, Swank handles the ‘lone girl in peril’ theatrics with effortless ease, while Morgan leaps into playing an unhinged nutjob with both feet and to impressive effect. Sadly short-changed is Christopher Lee, who pops up for mere moments as Max’s grandfather to creepily glare at Swank and do precious little else.
First-time feature filmmaker and music video pro Antti Jokinen and Pan’s Labyrinth cinematographer Guillermo Navarro conjure up plenty of palpable atmosphere and stylish camerawork, making The Resident a tad creepier than the average assembly line thriller. And while the movie leans so heavily on lingering shots of Hilary Swank taking long baths and staring scantily-clad in the mirror that it’d serve as a debilitating drinking game, the script also steps into darker-than-expected territory enough to make it genuinely unsettling at times.
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Though far from a masterpiece and a little too generic, The Resident is still a slick, taut and occasionally unnerving little psycho-thriller. It’s not the Hammer comeback you might’ve hoped for, but as a late-night popcorn horror movie, it packs plenty of thrills and tension.
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The disc that Icon Home Entertainment kindly sent along for review was a promotional screener without extras, so I can’t properly assess the special features and video/audio quality of the final release. The retail DVD contains the following special features:
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The Resident is out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK from Monday.
Click here to order the DVD from Amazon.co.uk.