#4 - The Tenant (1976)
This is the third film in Roman Polanski's unofficial "Apartment Trilogy", the first two being Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. Like those films, it deals with the horror of apartment living and the psychological effects that go along with the lack of privacy and, paradoxically, the sense of isolation. In this film, a man named Trelkovsky (played by Polanski himself) moves into an apartment previously occupied by a woman who committed suicide. He soon finds himself dealing with strange and sometimes hostile neighbors and gets caught up in a Kafkaesque* nightmare of unfounded accusations, gaslighting, and psychological manipulation.
In my opinion The Tenant is the weakest of the three films in the trilogy, but mostly because the other two are such stone-cold classics - this is still excellent. It has an oppressive sense of anxiety that I think anyone who has ever lived in an apartment can identify with at least a little. Polanski also adds a bit of dark humor to this film in the absurdity of Trelkovsky's situation. The cinematography by the legendary Sven Nykvist is of course excellent, and there are some really cool shots where he uses forced perspective and sets with bizarre proportions to give the visuals a surreal and nightmarish look.
This is often cited as one of the best horror films of all time - it's number 36 in Slant Magazine's top 100 horror films, and Edgar Wright has it on his list as well. Honestly I don't think I'd rank it quite that high, but it is definitely very good and well worth watching.
Also, "No one does it to you like Roman Polanski" is a REALLY unfortunate tagline - this was released a few years before the assault/rape charges against him came to light. Yikes.
*I don't care if it sounds pretentious, I will never not use the word "Kafkaesque" when the opportunity arises.
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