The Tenant 1976

If there is a director who has created arguably the greatest psychological horrors ever made within the film industry it would be Roman Polanski. With such as ‘Rosmary’s Baby’ under his belt he is instantly one of the best at tension, suspense, dark and surreal horror films.

Polanski himself plays Telkovsky in this film, a young man looking for an apartment in France. When he finally finds one, he discovers that it is empty because the previous tenant, Simone Choule, attempted to kill herself by falling out of the window. Simone dies from the fall and Trelkovsky begins to become obsessed with her, until to the point of believing that her death was caused by the rest of the tenants in the building.

What makes the films so successful (like many of Polanski’s film) is how nothing ever really happens, but it is through his excellent direction he creates the tension. With small changes always being made he achieves this. For example throughout the film the camera gets closer and closer to Tellovsky which pushes isolation into the characters and the audiences faces. Also the film holds a lot of tension from the very beginning by Polanski’s very wooden and tense performance. At first it looks like bad acting but when you realise all actors have this style you are able to tell it is another one of the director’s brilliant ways of created awkward high tension.

A film such as ‘The Tenant’ is not a horror films which is memorable for its gore or shock moments but the deep psychological effects it has on its audience which are fantastic. Much like ‘The Shining’ the films makes you very wary of those around you and to watch closer on them. This is done by a famous Polanski setting, an apartment building.

Polanski also writes the perfect script for this film. There are many haunting undertones which certain characters say such as ‘No, the neighbours are no trouble. I rarely see them’ - ‘good I prefer it that way.’ Little moments like this occur with every character which help to create this very strange connection between character and that they all have something to hide.