The Resident (Review - DVD/Blu-Ray Combo)

Image: Courtesy of Alliance Films
Legal Line © 2010 Resident Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Distributed exclusively in Canada by Alliance Films. All Rights Reserved. © 2010 Resident Productions. Tous droits réservés. Distribué exclusivement au Canada par Alliance Vivafilm. Tous droits réservés.

Dir: Antti Jokinen (Bioterror)
Cast: Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Christopher Lee, Lee Pace
USA/UK, 2011

Reason to see: Hammer Horror + Jeffrey Dean Morgan = yes and more please!

The Resident stars Hilary Swank as Juliet, a doctor who is newly separated from her husband (played by Lee Pace) and looking for a new place to stay. Although the choices seem limited, she comes across an imperfect-yet-charming place newly renovated by the owner, Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and situated in a large building which appears to be only occupied by Max and his grandfather August (Christopher Lee).

I really enjoyed the characters The Resident, they are understated and very accessible with the quiet Juliet who is rebuilding her life and the kind and brooding owner Max (played charismatically by Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Two people who seemingly have nothing in common beyond rebuildling their living spaces and of course the luck of living in the same building. But in true horror nature, things start to go awry and things start to get pretty freaking creepy. I love how it's a slow burn in terms of the horror side of the story, and gets the feeling of something just being 'off' very well. And when I say creepy, I mean really creepy in a voyeuristic sense with a dash of home invasion tension as well which if a sure fire way to really freak people out. That being said, it's not my particularly my favourite kind of horror although I did think the unnerving tone was very well captured.

I thought the story and acting were both solid, and the creep factor is was way high. It was also a complete treat to see Lee Pace (The Fall), he's a great actor and I am always on the look out for his name to pop up in film (and we will see him later this year in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part I). It's not quite what I imagined a new Hammer Horror film to be, but I've seen almost exclusively vampire/werewolf films of theirs from the (distant) past, but it was a nice nod to those films to see Christopher Lee here. If you are looking for a slow burn creep out film, check out The Resident.

DVD Extras:

• Trailer

The Resident is available on DVD as of April 26, 2011. Check it out over at Amazon.ca & Amazon.com

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it
I'll watch it again
I'd recommend it to horror fans, especially in the creepy/voyeuristic vein

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© Shannon Ridler, 2011