Le Locataire (Roman Polanski, 1976)

The third film in Polanski's 'apartment' trilogy, following on from Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, The Tenant has the director put himself through the psycho-torture mill at last instead of using female surrogates. He plays a single man who moves into an apartment previously occupied by a woman who leapt off the balcony. We know from the first two films to expect Kafkaesque lunacy to unfold and, sure enough, he's soon caught up in a growing delusion that his sinister landlord and the other uptight tenants are out to drive him mad. Accordingly, he starts dressing up as the now deceased former occupant of his flat.
Polanski interjects stark flashes of insanity as chillingly as ever, and the overall atmosphere is thoroughly unsettling. However, this time around, the protagonist's breakdown is too sudden and not sufficiently validated by circumstances, nor does one care a great deal for him, having been set up from the beginning with unctuous and cowardly traits. In some of Polanski's other films, the absurd progression of events would also serve as a metaphor for a larger concern, but this is just effective loopy psychological horror and nothing more.

5/10