The Landlord (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Emil Hyde

Cinematographer: Phil O'Neil

Composer: Karen Sandvoss

Cast: Derek Dziak, Rom Barkhordar, Michelle Courvais, Erin Myers, Lori Myers, Gloria Coco, Rob McLean, Kurt Ehrmann

Hyde’s ultra-low budget debut - a cheap and cheerful horror/comedy in which the landlord of a flat, occupied by a demon and a god, leases it to unwitting members of the populace despite knowing that he will soon have to clean up the ensuing bloody mess - is a film of considerable charm and wit, and one that even manages to make positives of its numerous budgetary short-falls (the rather naff CGI, which seems to have escaped from the 1980s, is actually camply effective), but the film’s one real genuine piece of excellence is the very funny performance from the Peter Kay look-alike, Dziak, in the eponymous central role. Iain.Stott