Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Poor Melanie Dade (Talia Shire) catches her scummy husband, Ralston in bed w/ another woman. Not to worry! Mel fixes hubby a final feast of deadly delights for dinner! Then, she's off to take her rightful place as landlady of the apartment building she's inherited. Things go just swimmingly until the old apartment manager gets a little too nosey, and it's death-by-heavy-kitchen-appliance time! Melanie soon falls in love w/ Peter, the hunkster tenant down the hall. Oh no, he's got a girlfriend! No problem, just a quick visit from Melanie sets her straight! Yepper, ol' Mel is on the move, knocking off anyone who crosses her path. THE LANDLADY is fun, Fun, FUN in the same vein as classics like THE DENTIST and / or DEVIL IN THE FLESH, etc. Buy immediately...

The reason I bought this film, is because I like Talia Shire. The only reason to buy this film is because of Shire, cause if you don't like Shire then I wouldn't recommend you buying this film.

The Landlady follows the frustrated Melanie, a woman who's husband cheats on her, a situation that lets something snip in her mind. She becomes obsessed with having the perfect family and husband. After she kills her husband, she moves into an appartmentbuilding which she inherrited. There she meets Patrick who becomes her new object of desire to start a new family with. And she lets nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody come in her way...

In technical aspects, the Landlady is ok, not fantastic, but ok. It has good camera movements (some could have been way better to make it more tense) and the lighting is well done which gives some scenes a nice horror feel. The music also is nice in some scenes.

Now the acting could have been way better, not counting Talia Shire. Shire is the one who keeps the film away from the pit of the terribly bad films. But although she acts good, in some scenes you really feel that she doesn't give her 100% which is a pitty: she could have done way better than this. But one thing she does perfectly: even though she is the bad one in the film and kills a lot of people, she actually makes you feel for the pshyco landlady. That is what makes her performance ok.
Now the rest of the cast acts so emotionalless that you absolutely don't care that they are getting killed. The only one I did care for was a character played by Dee Freeman, she does an ok actingjob also. But as for the rest: they don't feel like people but just minor props that have to be taken care of. You will find yourself looking at the screen saying: "Oh, there goes another one."
Conclusion: The murders look more funny than they look scary or emotional.
Also the tempo of the film is sometimes awfully slow. It takes a long time from one murder to another which will dissapoint slasher and horror fans.

So when you sit down and watch the Landlady, watch it with your sense of humor switched on, then it will be more watchable then when you watch it counting on a scary horrorfilm.
So if you are a Talia Shire fan, I would recommend you this film cause it is fun to see Shire do something totally different than playing a lovely sweet innocent woman. If you are not a Shire fan, then this film will look like just another low budget, wanna-be horror film to you.