Review: The Resident Blu-ray

STUDIO: Image Entertainment | DIRECTOR: Antti Jotinen | CAST: Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lee Pace, Christopher Lee
RELEASE DATE: 3/29/2011 | PRICE: DVD $27.97, Blu-ray $29.97
BONUSES: none
SPECS: R | 91 min. | Horror thriller | 2.35:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 DTS-HD audio | English, Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Hilary Swank has had an odd acting career. In between such acclaimed movies as Boys Don’t Cry (which gave Swank an Oscar for Best Actress), Million Dollar Baby and Amelia, Swank has done some stinkers, inluding The Core and The Reaping. Her latest movie, The Resident, leans more in the second category.

Ok, it’s not a stinker, but it’s no Conviction. The Resident finds Swank playing a young doctor who, after her boyfriend (Lee Pace, A Single Man) cheats on her, moves into a Brooklyn loft by herself. But she quickly discovers that her landlord (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, The Losers) is dangerously obsessed with her.

And here’s the main problem with the movie. It starts out giving us the idea that there’s something creepy going on and presents a few options as to who might be the culprit. But about 20 minutes into the movie, it rewinds and shows us the bad guy. After that, we’re only left to guess how far he’ll go — and there aren’t any surprises.

The best parts of the film are snippets that hint about the the landlord’s past, issues with his parents that perhaps made him the monster he has become. And Dean does a good job of showing his character’s struggle as he tries to be normal and deny his evil impulses. This would have made a much more interesting story than Swank’s sweet and innocent doctor.

Also starring Lord of the Rings‘ Christopher Lee and the first film from British horror studio Hammer in close to three decades, The Resident has some thrills (it’s very creepy to watch Dean underdress Swank while she’s drugged), but it could have been so much more.

The Blu-ray doesn’t have any special features, but we would have loved a featurette on the storied history of Hammer Studios.

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