My Nightmare Landlord (2020 Lifetime)
Cast: Caroline Harris, Ignacyo Matynia, Sinéad D’arcy
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Lydia moves into a new apartment after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, finding herself more and more isolated as her apartment manager becomes obsessed with her.
Thoughts
The movie starts with rose petals leading up to a dead woman in a bathtub!?
Lydia (A POC Lead!!!) is an English major college student looking for a new apartment. She almost finishes signing the lease when her alcoholic, hipster ex-boyfriend named Tim shows up. It is too much drama, and the real estate agent tears up the contract. Lydia continues her search, crying, and runs into a hot, shirtless handyman. (Is there any other kind?) Lydia tells him her sob story, and he offers to show her a place. The handyman takes pity on her, puts on a shirt, and gives Lydia a tour. The place is gorgeous, and Drew (the hunk) lives above her. He states that he is working on the floors and that it won’t be quiet during the day. Lydia is unbothered and accepts the place from the handsome landlord.
On move-in day, Lydia brings her cat Pumpkin and one bag. She travels light. Lydia notices a picture of the dead bathtub lady and a leak by the refrigerator, and Drew is right there to make the repairs sexily. Drew shows Lydia an app on his phone that can lock the doors and control the lights, which triggers a panic attack for Lydia. (Very well acted and directed, might I add.) Drew is concerned about her and tells her that everything will be okay.
Kaylee, Lydia’s BFF, comes over and drinks wine. She is shipping Drew and Lydia to get together. Tim is played out, and Drew is fine as hell. Little do they know that Drew is keying into Lydia’s apartment and reading her diary to get to know her. He also sees a book on nyctophobia. (Which is a fancy word for being afraid of the dark.) While he is snooping, he gets caught by Helen, the senile old woman in the apartment next door. (Only she isn’t senile.)
Later that night, in the dark, a terrified Lydia walks around with a knife. She is convinced that someone is in her apartment. It is Drew, and she is paralyzed with fear. He tells her that he is not going to hurt her and was only in the apartment to make repairs. (In the middle of the night.) He turns on the lights, and she is all better. No harm was done! Lydia even invites him to stay for a glass of wine. The two bond over their love of Hemingway, past relationship troubles, and they also play doctor. The wine quickly turns to dinner. Then dinner to sexy time! (Nope, Lydia wants to take things slow. Which I don’t think is possible because Ignacyo Matynia is so dreamy. )
Drew asks Lydia on a date to see a play with him. She begins to open up about her parents dying and her debilitating fear of the dark. Then he takes her to a romantic, candlelit rooftop dinner. He even gives her a charm bracelet that is also a nightlight. So much for taking it slow. They have some sexytime on the couch but Drew stops her from going too far, because she is worth the wait. I’m rooting for this relationship. (Even if Drew is a stalker killer who set up cameras in her apartment.)
When Lydia declines his dinner invitation due to a work commitment, Drew tracks her phone and then visits her at the library. Lydia is thrilled to see him, and they make out in the book stacks. (Is that what that is called? I’ve clearly never spent time in the library.) Lydia brushes off Drew AGAIN, and he tracks her again. He sees Lydia talking to Brad and thinks she is cheating on him. Drew confronts Lydia and accuses her of flirting with her TA. He is emotionally unhinged and VERY positive. Lydia tells him that she wants to be friends.
The next morning, Lydia wakes up late for work because the power mysteriously went out. (Lydia is also the only person who still uses a non-phone alarm clock.) Drew is at her job, and Lydia isn’t concerned. She asks him to mail her financial aid forms for him, which he doesn’t. He also sends TA Brad messages from Lydia’s phone that she is going to charge him with sexual harassment, changes her work schedule, and then drops the phone in a water dish.
Lydia is confused about why Brad is avoiding her and how she could miss her work shift. Lydia gets fired from the library. She can’t cope and takes a sleeping pill. Drew sneaks into the apartment to submit a plagiarized paper, books a flight to France with Lydia’s credit card, and stands over her bed, getting his face close to hers to reset her alarm clock again!!!
Lydia thinks she might have gone shopping in her sleeping pill haze. Neighbor Helen tells Lydia that she hs seen Drew coming and going from her apartment. Drew kills her while shirtless and then cries over her body while punching his head. (Have you ever heard of the hot/crazy scale?)
Drew takes a bubble bath. That is all.
Tim shows up and has gotten himself sober. He apologizes to Lydia, and she accepts his apology. Tim runs into Drew in the elevator and threatens him. Drew doesn’t give him the opportunity and hits Tim in the face with a sledgehammer.
Lydia takes the elevator up to Drew’s apartment and finds the computers surveilling it. Drew catches her and ties her up, gags her, and dresses her in a fancy red dress. He forces her to have another romantic wine dinner. Drew promises never to let her go and asks her if she wants to stay. When she declines her roofies, her champagne, and pours it down her throat. She spits it back in his face. Lydia struggles to get herself untied and succeeds. She bangs against the windows and screams for help, but she is trapped in the apartment. (With Tim’s dead body and cellphone. She calls 911.) Then she realizes she can use the app that Drew showed her to unlock the doors. His password was her name. (Haha!)
Lydia quietly tries to sneak out but is violently grabbed by Drew. He re-ties her and puts her in the bathtub. He wants to drown her like the woman from the beginning of the movie.
Kaylee notices something is off when she gets a grammatically incorrect text from Lydia that was sent by Drew. She rushes to the apartment with the police. The police officer searches the house and misses all the bodies wrapped in plastic and Lydia in the bathtub. After much struggle, Lydia turns on the light on her charm bracelet. Kaylee sees it and rescues her friend.
The police take away Drew; Lydia and Kaylee become roommates, and Lydia gets an internship from the TA, Brad. The end!
Side Note
The movie’s jump scares were effective.
Kaylee’s makeup and hair were a choice.
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Overall rating: Pour it up
🔪🔪🔪 (3 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 glasses of wine)
*Photo Credit: © 2020 Lifetime
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Love this movie because Iggy is a friend of mine!
He is the best!
I’m cackling at “Hauler’s hair and makeup were a choice.”!
Currently rewatching this. The friend Kaylee, has a strong resemblance to Chappell roan, which I find very ironic since Kaylee is her real name.