The Resident

The Resident (2011) is undoubtedly a Hammerfilm in many senses. The scenery: An old, dark house with lots of secrets. Just a few actors. Obviously low budget - the film is only 87 minutes.

The film actually connects visually to the past - the logo is formed by scenes from the old, classic Hammer films. That is a neat detail. In a intial scene Hillary Swank's character is doing some surgery, and just for a second the camera holds still on those bloodsmeared hands. Read wine over white bathroom floor. A dark sky with a full moon. Those details are winks to the audience - we know that you know.

Then of course the presence of Christopher Lee himself. Unfortunately, I have to agree with someone who wrote: Why did they not make better use of him? Frankly, Jefferey Dean Morgan is too much of a teddy bear to convince me he would be a maniac of any sort. They could have used Lee's presence to develop a nice phsycological drama between them.

Now there's just an embryo of a good story here - instead the filmmakers have just hurried past those possibilities in the story, to get to the "point".

One of Hammer's specialities used to be to scare the crap out of the audience, but to a modest budget.  In those days the films did not leave the audience untouched. One wished that that leagacy could have lived on. It doesn't.

However, I have seen far worse films. It was more like: So what?

But that must, on the other hand, be a deadly sin for a Hammer film.

The trailer.

This is a report from CNN on Hammerfilms coming to live again, called "Back from the dead?" With some shots from the set of The Resident.


Back from the dead? by CNN_International