Tenant, The

Director:  Roman Polanski
Year Released:  1976
Rating:  1.0

"Humble" file clerk Roman gets an apartment in a complex run by Melvyn Douglas (with help from Shelley Winters), only to find that the woman who had the room before him was driven mad by her neighbors and committed suicide. For being a 'psychological horror' film, the scenes of Polanski in drag or trying to act scared (the first mistake he made was casting himself, though I suspect he was striving, as usual, to make some statement about being paranoid in a foreign land) are just too funny to be deeply unnerving, and the entire set-up is so hare-brained and silly it's a challenge to get involved in it on any genuine emotional level. If you thought Rosemary's Baby worked as a horror film, by all means watch this, but if you're like me and find that picture to be overrated, goofball camp, the last half-hour will confound you. My favorite line: "They're playing football with a human head!" My favorite scene: Roman and Isabelle Adjani making out to Enter the Dragon.

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