Anthology films are a kind of interesting thing to get right, and executed right and you have pieces like Black Sabbath and Creepshow, but on the other hand, if done wrong, you have Four Rooms. If asked to classify the work of writers Sean Mesler, Mary O’Neil, and Buz Wallick, I will say that Tenants has its quality rating at about the middle, which, with a few notable exceptions, is about where a large number of anthology horror films tend to rest, primarily due to the fact that it is an unusual sub-genre in which all segments do get together for the most part.
Tenants plot follows Joni ( Mary O’Neil) who wakes up in an unknown apartment complex and sets off on a mission to search for her sister Emily (Katheryne Isabelle Easton). All of Joni’s hopes are dashed when she realizes that she is in a seven-story apartment building and that finding her sister in such a large building is not as easy as it sounds. So, up she goes, floor after floor, meeting the different residents of the building, dark, troubled and suffering in their various ways.
Considering how this film was made with six members in the crew while the production lasted thirteen days, what it manages to pull off, most of the times, is certainly remarkable.
One of the highlights of this action is how beautifully Tenants manages to create the tone and atmosphere while making the action take place in a building reminiscent of Silent Hill 3. The issue that it faces is that some of the various residents stories are much better cut than others.
The stories Hoarder and Acting Rash are the two that I’m going to pinpoint for singling out for special praise because they are neat short-form narratives that are like good horror short and sweet, to the point. Hoarder focuses on a man (Myles Cranford) who has recently lost his wife and his son (Acquah Dansoh) who does his best to persuade his father to move on and abandon his wife’s things within their shared home. It is interesting to note that both actors during this small shot sequence, managed to transition from calm to fighting with each other very well, with both Cranford and Danson integrating quite well into their roles as a son and father, both of whom have conflicting opinions towards each other.
Acting Rash, which focuses on an ex-child star (Christa Collins) turned has-been and a once successful child star who has– quite by chance – her talent agent get her a potential engagement that could rejuvenate her career with only a few hour’s notice to schedule a meeting.
Everything seems alright until she unexpectedly breaks out in patchy skin which causes her to frantically search for something to cure the condition within the confines of her home.
This short work because it’s both comedic in its meditation of the concepts of fame and stardom (as well as the make-up and beauty industries) and Cronenbergian body horror with a great performance by Collins, who takes on the role of a has-been child star perfectly which is a source of tragicomedy itself.
These segments are very much Tenants’s A material, as the strongest story that underpins all the stories, which is Joni that links all the tales, unfortunately, did not pan out as I would have wished, and all the other segments left me very dissatisfied.
In conclusion, Tenants has much to offer and judging by its production and budget constraints the final product is still a confident, creative and skilled work of art. While almost all rest of the stories in the anthology do not stand even close to those of Acting Rash and Hoarder, pockets of intensity and diligence that went into this film are purely something that a stone-hearted devil would ignore praises for.
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