‘The Last Tenant’ Review
Stars: Ryan Carnes, Ciara Hanna, Jamie Bernadette, Nicky Whelan, Charles W Harris III, Brett Azar, Casey Seymour Kim, John Fiore | Written by Jacob Cooney, Timothy Morgan | Directed by Tom DeNucci
“Hi, are you the landlord?”
The Last Tenant is a spectacle of intrigue and possibilities. In the title itself, we ask: “Who is she?” From there, we then begin to wonder if this is going to be a stalker movie, a bizarre love triangle concept, a sleazy psychological thriller, or just a nosey busybody character piece. The possibilities are endless in this realm of cinema. From Tom DeNucci, The Last Tenant is a thrilling spectacle.
When Mark (Ryan Carnes) and Gwen (Ciara Hanna) move into their new home, the bride-to-be realises that she left a prized possession in their last place. Moving into their last place, in very suspicious conditions, is Stacey (Jamie Bernadette) – she literally bribes the landlord to evade background checks! After one red flag comes another: Mark returns to the old place, but scares the living daylights out of Stacey, who denies and rejects the existence of this prized possession of Stacey.
Shortly after, guess who’s coming to dinner: it’s Stacey! Bizarrely, out of nowhere, Stacey has become friendly with Gwen, having returned her jewellery. Despite overwhelming caution from Mark over this newfound friendship, Gwen ignores and proceeds to girl bond with Stacey. Leading to growing tensions between the soon-to-be married couple, Gwen’s sister, Jill (Nicky Whelan), is aggressively suspicious of Stacey. Her investigation and harassment of Stacey causes quite the discomfort for both the characters and viewers of The Last Tenant. Is Stacey really that dangerous?
Naturally, there is an increase in tension once Stacey’s true colours begin to unveil as the wedding of Mark and Gwen draws closer. The question asked throughout this build-up and gradual slip of the mask: will Stacey ruin the wedding? The Last Tenant certainly has fun in the regard of running in parallel both Stacey’s step-by-step meltdown and the countdown to the big day. The respective developments go so well hand-in-hand together; this narrative tactic is quite effective.
However, there is an eventual mood of The Last Tenant putting more effort into the countdown to the fireworks rather than the fireworks themselves. Slightly underwhelming in conclusion, this is ultimately a case where the true action and showcase is in the buildup and anticipation of chaos. However, in avoidance of overdone and overly extravagant finales, The Last Tenant in its conclusion actually feels more grounded than we would come to expect with these films – whether budget constraints or artists’ choices prevented this, who knows, but the execution works.
From Tom DeNucci, The Last Tenant is quite simply a fun, semi-throwback psychological thriller with great character performances from start to finish. Humorous in places, thrilling in others, and consistently intense.
