Director – Tony Olmos (South of 8, Pulp Friction)
Starring – Kimberly Weinberger (Outer Dark, Apparition), Brian Patrick Butler (Hacksaw, The Gools), and Aimee La Joie (Golden Hour, The Film Crew)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 3/5
I get asked to review a lot of films from various filmmakers, producers, distributors, and so on. I have a hard time turning a film away especially if something about the film catches my eye. A few weeks ago I received an email to review the oddball political satire horror comedy Hemet, or the Landlady Doesn’t Drink Tea. The title and poster definitely peaked my interest and I agreed to check it out. However, it take me a little time to get to it which I do apologize for. I want to thank Dan Butler for sending this one along for review. I seriously enjoyed it!
**Spoiler Alert** The film takes place in the not so distant future where capitalism has completely taken over. Profit rules the world and most laws protecting consumers have been virtually removed. A tyrannical elderly landlord owns an apartment complex where she willfully increases rent on a whim while kicking out people she doesn’t like. This causes some of them to conspire behind her back to take her out in order to take control of the apartments. **Spoiler Alert**
Hemet, or the Landlady Doesn’t Drink Tea is one of those films that is damn near impossible to describe. It combines comedy with exploitation, satire, drama, and horror into something that defies labels. With that being said, the film has a lot going on without really saying anything at all. While I loved the acting and the out there story, the film itself doesn’t really go anywhere.
The acting in this one is very uneven but not what I would call bad. Some of the cast delivers a fantastic job while others do show inexperience. These scenes are a bit awkward and feel like they are going nowhere. On the flip side of that same coin, Butler makes the film as the elderly landlord. This performance is unforgettable and makes the film for me. I would have checked out of this film very early on if it wasn’t for Butler and his performance.
The story for this one would be a solid premise for a short. I loved the way money means everything but has very little value along with the power over the tenants the landlord had. When you toss in the amazing performance from Butler as the landlord you have a solid base for a film. However, we get a lot of talk about junkies eating people. I don’t know if this was written when the whole bath salts thing was popular on the news but mentioning it without actually showing them does very little for the viewer. Also, we have a lot of scenes that go nowhere other than giving Butler a chance to shine. While I do love his performance, a lot of these scenes could have been cut to fix the pacing of the film.
Finally, the film has some cheap visual effects and some wild make-up effects. We have several deaths with a few of them using cheap visual effects and some blood splatter. However, the make-up effects for the landlady is actually pretty impressive. It’s clearly a man in make-up but it’s surprisingly well made and put together. Overall, Hemet, or the Landlady Doesn’t Drink Tea is a film that would have been a very clever and unique short. However, it feels stretched too thin as a feature length film. It’s still a fantastic watch as is but does feel bloated in several of the scenes. I still recommend it but keep it mind that it does feel way too long for the story it has.
