The Tenant (1976)

A lot of horror films and thrillers have been made about the things that go bump in the night, but The Tenant is a rare film in that it's more about the bumps themselves than what's causing the bumps. To put it a somewhat less tortured way, this film is one of the most auditorily disturbing films I've ever seen. Polanski fills the movie with all manner of ambient and background noise to the point where the number of totally silent scenes in the film can be counted on one hand. This creates an unsettling atmosphere, especially considering that the film is about a man driven around the bend by his neighbors' incessant demands for quiet. It's as if Polanski could just be quiet, all would be well... but since the world itself is constantly noisy and droning, he will get no respite. It eventually also morphs into a study of paranoia, another film to ask the question "Are you paranoid if they really are after you?" The main difference with this film as opposed to most paranoia thrillers is that this movie never provides a solid answer as to whether Polanski's file clerk has a reason to be paranoid. The film's wicked, black sense of humor is just icing on the cake. A bit overlong at 125 minutes, but it's a good chiller.

Grade: B+