THE LANDLORD

"Sweet chocolate Jesus!"

Tyler (Derek Dziak) owns a three-storey building where he lives on the first floor and rents the other two out. The ground floor is inhabited by the mysterious Mrs Kiplinsky (Joan McGrath). The top floor is empty - but being advertised as being up for rent at an extremely competitive price.

Young married couple David and Caitlin snap the apartment up, only to wind up hacked to pieces on the living room floor when Tyler visits the following day.

It transpires that the apartment is home to two ancient flesh-eating demons - Lamashtu (Lori Myers) and Rabisu (Rom Barkhordar) - who require Tyler to keep luring tenants to the flat, so that they can feed on them. Tyler's main beef with this is that he's skint and the demons keep eating his tenants before he's had a chance to collect the rent.

Nevertheless, Tyler cleans the apartment of all traces of blood and visits his sexy cop sister Amy (Michelle Courvais). She's the type of policewoman who's not averse to doing iffy things to put extra money in her back pocket (money she can then give to Tyler to tide him over), or sucking her partner off in their patrol car while they wait for their next assignment to be radioed in. She's also the only other person who knows about the demons on the top floor of Tyler's building.

We discover that Amy has a deal with the demons - they wipe the streets clean of scumbags, and she provides them with human sacrifices to feed on. But only "assholes", mind - and definitely no kids. As Amy tells Tyler as she gives him a wad of her ill-gotten dosh, "just worry about feeding the demons - I'll worry about feeding you".

But a couple of gluttonous demons who eat his tenants too quickly is not Tyler's only problem. First off, there's Lopez (Kurt Ehrmann) and Rosen (Ezekiel Brown) - two cops obsessed by the fact that sixteen people have gone missing from Tyler's apartment in the last seven years. There's no evidence, but that doesn't stop Lopez from trying to beat a confession out of the sobbing Tyler.

How can Tyler go on feeding innocents to Rabisu and Lamasthu, under the nose of these watchful cops? Perhaps he won't - as the next prospective tenant that he shows round the apartment is divorcee Donna (Erin Myers). She's a cute young thing that Tyler clearly takes an early shine to.

Oh dear. You just know this is going to upset the apple kart. With the detectives prying, the demons growing hungry, Donna's ex-husband turning up and Tyler growing rebellious to the cause, things are bound to turn ugly.

When they do, we may just learn more about Mrs Kiplinsky and what her true nature is ...

A Massive Ego production, THE LANDLORD is a hugely enjoyable low budget effort (the budget was $22,000.00 - bear in mind that BLOOD FEAST was considered low budget back in 1963 and cost roughly $60,000.00 to produce ... taking inflation rates into consideration, that's a few million dollars these days!).

Although undeniably cheap in look and feel, THE LANDLORD uses these factors to impressive effect: the HD video camera captures the intimacy of many conversational scenes well, while the crappy CGI appears to be deliberately so - it suits the fan-boy humour that runs as a constant throughout.

Performances are middling but game without exception, with Erin Myers and Barkhordar deserving special mentions. Everyone else just hams it up - but that's okay, as within minutes that not only what you expect but also what you hope for.

First-time feature writer-director Emil Hyde does a good job of keeping the story ticking over nicely, not overly concerning himself with aesthetics but instead piling on the jokes and gore in equal measures. It's not a bad ploy, and the end result is an entertaining film with a few good ideas and plenty of zeal.

Massive Ego's self-distributed disc shows a surprisingly amount of effort.

The film itself is presented uncut in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and has been enhanced for 16x9 TV sets. Colours are bold and blacks remain reliable for the duration, even though images are a tad softer than what you'd expect from a 2009-produced film shot on HD video.

English 2.0 audio is clear, clean and consistent throughout. Optional subtitles are available in English and Spanish.

An animated main menu page gives access to a static scene-selection menu, which in turn allows you traverse the main feature by way of 33 chapters.

A healthy provision of extras begins with a jovial commentary track from Hyde, in conversation with principal cast members Dziak, Barkhordar and Courvais. They have lots of fun while giving a fair amount of low-budget details away. It gets messy at times, but all-in-all it makes for being a worthwhile listen.

"Squatters' Rights" is a 23-minute Behind-The-Scenes featurette that offers lots of decent handheld camera footage courtesy of co-producer Dan Kiggins, provided a good insight into the laidback shoot in the Chicago apartment location.

Next up are 4 deleted/extended scenes that come equipped with their own sub-menu page.

Then there's the original festival trailer, which runs for 77 seconds and is a successfully fast-paced race through the film's better moments.

We also get a trailer for an earlier film from Massive Ego Productions: ESCAPE FROM PLANET LOVE. It's decidedly lo-fi, but very funny regardless.

"Guess Who's Coming To Breakfast" is a 3-minute short film from the same cast and crew, which plays a bad sitcom before ending in slapstick violence.

A Calibration tool allows festival organisers to optimise the look of the DVD before screening it through a projector, by way of a slideshow of stills from the movie.

"General Info" is precisely that - one page of text giving background information on the film, along with a couple of weblinks.

Best of all is a built-in drinking game. This suggests that viewers take one drink each time either someone dies, a demon appears on screen or the demonic symbol (a little like the Eibon symbol in THE BEYOND) appears. Believe me, follow the rules and you'll soon be drunk. There are even optional subtitles that will help you to play the game while the film runs. Great stuff.

For those interested in discovering new talent, which I reckon Emil Hyde could and would be if justice prevails and a decent budget is ever shoved under his nose, then this is for you.

A highly promising and ambitious film, on a very credible disc.

Recommended ... for those with a leaning towards the obscure.

For more information, check out the official site here.

Review by Stu Willis