The Resident (2015) Review
Psychological thriller The Resident (formerly The Sublet), not to be confused with the ghastly Hilary Swank film of the same name, is a rare beast. The story is familiar, there’s no surprises and consequently you know exactly how it will build and how it will finish. However it still works, it still grips and it also packs an emotional punch come the climax. This is due in no small part to Tianna Nori’s lead performance, Greg Biskup’s atmospheric camera-work and writer/director John Ainslie’s ability to build and maintain suspense levels, yep, suspense levels, even when the viewer knows where the story is heading.
Young couple Joanna (Tianna Nori) and Geoff (Mark Matechuk) move into a small sublet apartment with their baby Porter. Geoff begins to neglect stay-at-home-mother Joanna, choosing to focus on his career as an actor instead. Joanna believes the sublet apartment has a violent history and could be haunted. There’s banging on the walls, doors opening of their own accord and voices heard from people unseen. Joanna begins to question her sanity. She finds a lost diary in which the writer, former tenant Margaret (Krista Madison), appears to be going through the same things as Joanna, very bad things indeed.
There are niggles – why would a young couple choose accommodation where there are so many stairs to walk up and down when they have a small child to lug around? (Yes, I know that it’s difficult to get affordable accommodation but seriously, I’d hold out for somewhere else, I really would). And why does Joanna suffer Geoff, her self-absorbed arsehole of a boyfriend? For the purpose of the story Joanna has to endure his irritating ways, and so do we. He brings home a complete bitch of a woman, an ex-girlfriend, for dinner, unannounced, who spitefully and constantly insults Joanna, he complains each morning that she has put sugar in his cuppa (make it yourself mate!) and he never, ever, EVER acts upon Joanna’s heartfelt request to move out of the sublet. Geoff deserves what’s coming, he really does!
The Resident shares similarities with recent release The Ones Below – young woman with child home alone, building paranoia, disbelieving husband – but, with its supernatural leanings, it’s very much its own beast. It’s short but perfect in length for the tale it needs to tell, there’s no unnecessary padding to beef it up. The performances are reasonable, with lead Tianna Nori having to do most of the legwork. As mentioned at the start of this review The Resident offers no surprises but it still works, it still grips and the ending is pleasingly bloody and downbeat, in short it’s a flawed gem.
