Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Joanna has been living with her overbearing Aunt Martha in a low-income NYC tenement building ever since a violent outburst left her fighting a feeling she can only describe as the “darkness.” Little did she know that weeks after moving in, a biological threat from the Soviet Union would leave the building boarded up and the tenants locked inside. It’s been one month since they were first sequestered. With food dwindling and Martha’s controversial role as leader expanding, Joanna realizes that she must face both her darkness and her aunt in order to save the tenants. But can she take on the leadership without letting the darkness take over her entirely?
With production stills on Twitter going back to 2017 and a Kickstarter campaign circa 2018, Darkness in Tenement 45 is probably the best-timed film in all of history. That, or it was the production crew who actually created and leaked the virus in Wuhan simply to promote their film (You heard it here first! Also, I’m kidding so please don’t sue me). Darkness in Tenement 45 boasts of being an almost entirely female-led film—cast, production and crew…which is a pretty praiseworthy feat.
Now, most seem to be going the covid-19 route when it comes to the reviews but I’m leaving that angle for the rest. While hugely convenient and ridiculously relevant, the global lockdown and isolationism is not the point of the film. The film addresses—instead—abuses of power, trust, and the weakness of the human psyche. Allow me to extemporize.
Casey Kramer plays Martha, the film’s unapologetic antagonist and arguably the film’s cornerstone. Her character metamorphoses from mother-figure to dictator over the course of the feature and is pretty much present and prelevant in most scenes. She is absolutely fantastic and unreservedly deserves all of praise she and the film have been garnering, as well as a few laurels and awards. Nicole Tompkins was a close second as Joanna but didn’t really do anything profoundly different or interesting with her character to make me fawn over her as much as I did Kramer.
The weaker links in the film were the dream sequences, the horny brother (Nicolas Aleksandr Bolton as Tomás), and the use of colour. The dream sequences were where the budget clearly showed that there wasn’t a lot of cash to be thrown around. They weren’t bad but did feel cheap. Tomás’ whole plot felt uncomfortable without much point. There were so many things going that focussing on a teenager’s need to jack-off seemed a little beside the point. The colourization of the film was a very murky green but the dreams were vibrant reds and blues. There is nothing wrong with this—per se—I just found the colour codes a little weird. Was yellow hope? Green decay? I maybe misread some cues here and that may be on me. Aside from the fact that this is definitely a slow burn, there really are few flaws.
The film is a hard, social commentary on poor leadership and group thinking. It channels a bit of that Animal Farm energy and yet manages to stay fresh, particularly as to how it is politically and socially relevant. While initially unintentional, there is a lot of common ground that any watcher going through an extended quarantine may be able to relate with. My personal quarantine was a tiny 15 days and my wife made sure that I was looked after and had all I needed so although I can empathise with all of those going through a really rough 2020, I know I’ve had it easy.
I’ve only really touched on a few of the themes and topics that Darkness in Tenement 45 attempts to address. There is a lot going on and it’s tough to sit back and enjoy a film when the critic in you is trying to analyse and unravel every scene. This film is loaded with lessons and laments, uncomfortable truths and uncanny accuracies. Albeit unintentionally relevant, the themes addressed may be important ideas that we are right now—ourselves—not paying attention to and very much should be.
The dream sequence colours are just jarring.
This is not really a horror film though. It’s a period drama in an alternate timeline powered by a very clever story and solid acting. There is definitely an air of horror but the film never quite crosses over. I loved it, but probably because I like unique and different cinema…and Darkness in Tenement 45 definitely fits that bill. Thanks for reading and as always, stay sordid. Trailer and poster below.
