Landlords are all about providing decent, safe housing — but in movies, they’re often portrayed as being greedy, evil, or just plain terrifying.
From satirical comedies to psychological suspense thrillers, Hollywood has used the “cruel landlord” narrative over the past several decades to depict power struggles by tenants and landlords who have their house in hand.
If you’ve ever dealt with a difficult property owner or simply enjoy stories where the underdog fights back, these films offer plenty of drama, suspense, and sometimes dark humor.
In real life, there’s no need for life to imitate art. A rental property owner with an apartment unit in, say, Houston, can make things easier for themselves and tenants by hiring a property manager serving Houston apartment owners. It’s about working smarter rather than harder.
Here are four of the best-ever movies about bad landlords — and tenants for good measure — and why they still resonate today.
1. Pacific Heights (1990)
Few films capture the terror of renting horrors better than Pacific Heights. Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine are a married couple who rent out half of their San Francisco home to what seems to be a fairly good tenant in Michael Keaton. When Keaton threatens not to pay rent, plays the system, and unleashes a reign of terror on his landlords, things get nasty.
Pacific Heights is the “bad landlord” story turned inside out — in this instance, the homeowners are preyed upon by a tenant gaming the system.
2. The Super (1991)
More subtle terror of the lighter sort is personified by The Super, a Joe Pesci comedy. Pesci is a slumlord who has been sent to one of his own run-down apartment buildings by the courts until he brings it up to code.
Though it’s less terrifying than other entries on this list, The Super offers a comedic but meaningful take on what happens when landlords are held accountable.
3. Slumlord (a.k.a. 13 Cameras) (2015)
For a genuinely creepy modern thriller, Slumlord (or 13 Cameras) packs a bunch on the horror front. A creepy landlord installs cameras in a rental unit to monitor innocent renters, unbeknownst to them. The film highlights the loss of privacy, voyeurism, and shaming of renters.
The movie takes the “bad landlord” theme to new heights by hyping the threat of technology in the wrong hands.
4. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
No list of evil landlord films would be complete without the mention of Rosemary’s Baby. The horror movie is about a newlywed couple who rent an apartment in a New York City high-rise apartment complex with the all-seeing surveillance of seemingly benevolent but ever-so-slightly deranged neighbors.
By happenstance, however, Rosemary, played by Mia Farrow, has landlords who are part of a Satanic cult with nefarious designs on her yet-to-be-born child.
The film shows how landlords don’t just control a tenant’s apartment but their feeling of security.
Bad landlord and tenant films work because they play on universal anxieties. On the one hand, landlords fear nightmare tenants who ruin their properties and refuse to pay rent. On the other hand, tenants fear landlords who make occupying their properties a living hell.
From Pacific Heights and Slumlord horrors to black comedies such as The Super, Hollywood has employed the landlord-tenant conflict to create suspense and social commentary over the last few decades. They remind us how much hangs in the balance in housing and how trust in the landlord-tenant system is often tenuous at best.
So, the next time you’re enjoying an evening of streaming movies at home, consider one of these flicks about troublesome landlords and tenants. They’ll have you laughing, gasping, or even locking the doors — and they’ll definitely make you appreciate the value of finding a good landlord or tenant.
