"THE TENANT" (1976)

by Roger Leese
(Manheim, Pa.)

Roman Polanski directs and also plays the title character in this bizarre 70's horror film. There is a plot similarity to his 1965 classic "Repulsion" starring Catherine Deneuve, but in this film Polanski himself plays a person alone in an apartment, losing his grip on sanity. At first, the viewer thinks they are watching a film about a haunted apartment, and only gradually realize that the strange happenings are the result of the character's disintegrating mental state. The climax is so very bizarre that it verges on black comedy. Are we meant to laugh or scream at what we are witnessing? Or both? Though the film was foreign-made, it co-stars American character actors Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet, and Shelley Winters. A video tape of this film is prominently situated on a store shelf in the popular horror film, "The Ring", probably placed there as a homage to this great Roman Polanski thriller.