Review: THE RESIDENT - Oscar Winner Hilary Swank Should Know Better

rating: 2

Hammer Horror appear to have been granted a second wind of sorts, with the success of their surprisingly solid remake of Swedish cult vamp flick Let the Right One In restoring a reputation lost amid a sabbatical lasting several decades. Their second feature, however, suggests that the classy renaissance of their first was more likely a fluke, as The Resident, while more attuned to the low-rent sensibilities of vintage Hammer Horror, is really just a lazy merry-go-round of horror clichés, doing absolutely nothing good for the career of Hilary Swank in the process. Swank is Dr. Juliet Dermer who, having recently separated from her husband, is looking for a new apartment. When she responds to an invitation to check our a vacant property, she is bowled over by the low asking price and the kind, handsome owner, Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). At first his helpfulness is endearing and even perhaps alluring, but his eagerness soon gives way to forcefulness, while a dark secret locked away reminds him of a disturbing past he tries to forget. While it's a given that an actress of Swank's calibre should know better, The Resident at least lacks the interminable jump scares and idiotic characters that plague so much contemporary horror fare. Instead, director Antti Jokinen opts to try and build quiet suspense and an eerie atmosphere through the sheer banality of the evil on offer (at least at first). Max's charming niceties and the fact that, for a while, nothing really seems to be wrong, help keep things off-kilter, though the best dose of weird comes from Max's decrepit, half-dead grandfather August, played with a wink and a nod by Hammer alumnus Christopher Lee, instantly lending the mess a smidgen of credibility. Still, while the sense of urban paranoia is palpable, the long-in-the-tooth set-up devotes just too much time to the schmaltzy will-they-won't-they romance blossoming between Juliet and Max, while a few shadowy shots of Lee Pace's ex-boyfriend character try to tell us that something isn't right. Subtlety isn't the film's forte for very long, and before act one is done and dusted, an overly expository flashback very nearly derails the film entirely, playing one card of horrid contrivance too far. Any is-he-or-isn't-he suspense evaporates once this big reveal is done with, causing the slog of a remainder to feel like a balloon deflating very slowly. Once such a basic rule of suspense cinema - that is, don't let the cat out of the bag until you have to - has been so excitedly thwarted, it's best to just throw your hands up and try to enjoy The Resident for the shonky smorgasbord of clichés that it is. Making the ride somewhat smoother - aside from the lean 91 minute runtime - is how cataclysmically the film devolves into camp as it hurtles along. Try to find the shot of Morgan menacingly brushing his teeth with Swank's toothbrush terrifying, or better yet, the scene when he sucks her fingers while she sleeps. No matter how loud the tension chord, The Resident is funnier than it is frightening. From here on out, the film becomes so head-smackingly contrived - a surveillance system Juliet sets up conveniently doesn't cover everywhere, marvellous as it is - such that it's difficult to ever really feel involved in what is going on. The dull third act is a mostly generic cat-and-mouse chase that abjectly fails to get the blood pumping, but at least things end abruptly and there's no sign of the now expected stinger ending. Technically sloppy - check out the atrocious editing when Swank's character frantically clicks through the surveillance footage near the end of the film - and scripted with the laziness that only jaded cynicism could beget, The Resident avoids a few genre pitfalls, but woefully, not enough of them. The Resident is released in the U.K. on Friday.