SINGLE WHITE FEMALE brought us the roommate from hell. SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY the husband from hell. Hell, CRUSH brought us the teenage crush from hell. PACIFIC HEIGHTS brings us the tenant from hell. And it works much better than all those above movies, because the psycho is more than a psycho.
The “From Hell” thriller sub-genre is often pretty predictable. Not that this film breaks that mold, but it’s more believable and has a nice twist. Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith, WORKING GIRL) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine, SHORT CUTS) are a boyfriend and girlfriend who buy an old apartment in San Francisco with the idea that if they rent out the two units below them they will be saving money on what they use to pay on rent before.
We meet Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton, BATMAN) early on and we quickly come to dislike him. He’s a twisted scam artist who likes to screw with people’s lives and take them for everything they have. As the story progresses, the more mounting the financial problems Patty and Drake experience, which begins to pull their relationship apart.
I really felt Drake’s frustration with being taken advantage of by a stranger. His anger plays right into Carter’s game. The film does have some major contrivances and repeats a beat or two, but by that point I was rooting for Patty and Drake and sympathizing with their situation. Toward the end Patty has a moment of nice revenge that is wonderfully suitable.
In the end, the fact that Carter wasn’t just a straight up psycho made the film more interesting and believable. Director John Schlesinger made one of the best thrillers of all time with MARATHON MAN — here he returns to the genre with another solid effort.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
