SummaryThe Lodger follows a seasoned detective on the trail of a ruthless killer intent on slaughtering prostitutes along West Hollywood's Sunset Strip. It appears that the murderer's grisly methods are identical to that of London's infamous 19th century psychopath Jack the Ripper - a relentless serial killer who was never caught by police. To make matt... Read More
Directed By:David Ondaatje
Written By:David Ondaatje, Marie Belloc Lowndes
The Lodger
Metascore
Overwhelming Dislike
17
User score
Mixed or Average
5.5
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Top Cast
Metascore
Overwhelming Dislike
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100% Negative
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
33
It takes guts to remake what many believe to be Hitchcock's first masterpiece, but what Ondaatje's done with The Lodger could not be mistaken for ambition.
30
The biggest mystery, perhaps, is why accomplished actors such as Molina and Hope Davis agreed to be in this.
30
What needed to be a taut, structurally sound psychothriller instead malfunctions from the start.
25
A good cast can't save The Lodger, the utterly wrongheaded fourth movie version of a 1910 novel inspired by Jack the Ripper.
20
Prostitutes are not the only things butchered in The Lodger, a spooky story ruined by lumpen dialogue, cloddish performances and a director and writer (David Ondaatje) oblivious to both.
20
Nodding, winking, and sighing, The Lodger lumbers its way to a final twist so anticlimactic and silly as to warrant an incredulous titter.
0
Filled with second-rate Brian DePalma twists, noirishly blurred lights and usually solid actors mouthing potboiler brine, The Lodger resembles bottom-shelf '80s dreck.
User score
Mixed or Average
46% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
15% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
38% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Sep 5, 2023
3
A sad case of a thriller that had an interesting basis to succeed but then gratuitously complicates its life by becoming ridiculous instead of tense and suspenseful. The Lodger is a bleak and violent film but it tries to be more cerebral than raw. Not that I think it's necessary to exploit the creepiness of a serial killer, but this film disguises the horror under an explanation that feels not only weak, but basically sounds like the psychiatrist's explanation at the end of Psycho. This conclusion appears exceptionally frail given the nature of the murders and the intricate plotting surrounding them. In essence, The Lodger is just a very poor thriller. No wonder why I never heard of it before, and no wonder why its director never made another movie.
Production Company:
- Merchant Pacific Corporation
- Michael Mailer Films
Release Date:Jan 23, 2009
Duration:1 h 35 m
Rating:R
Tagline:Everyone Is Suspect
Awards
Casting Society (CSA)
• 1 Nomination
