The Perfect Tenant

Jessica Michaels (Linda Purl) rents her guesthouse to Daniel Winters (Maxwell Caulfield), unaware that he is is the son of the school teacher who molested her as a child. Daniel has been in a psychiatric institution (the reason for his commitment and his method of release are unexplained) and is set on avenging the father that hanged himself before he could be charged.

As an associate producer, Purl possibly influences director Doug Campbell in giving her two slow motion admiration shots - Daniel's first look at her, and her memory as she passe her former school in a car. Purl lends her strong presence and has enough technique to put a spin on the ordinary lines she is given. In one scene Daniel hugs her and the combination of neuroses says more than anything else that Campbell can muster.

The teleplay by Jim Vines, M Todd Bonin and Campbell, based on a story by Mark Castaldo, is lightweight, though it does have 2 funny lines. When Jessica sees that Daniel's book collection is stamped with the name of the psychiatric institution, her daughter quips `I hear it's not easy to turn pages in a straitjacket', and fellow former inmate Rachel (Tracy Nelson) says to Daniel after he tries to strangle her `I know this is only a temporary situation for us'. The appearance of Daniel's sister in the narrative prefigures the conclusion, though his one controlling way of treating her sets up an expectation which is not fulfilled.

Campbell seems more interested in creating a horror movie than a psychological study. He dwells sadistically on Daniel's killing of the former tenant and attack on Rachel, and uses an appropriately unsubtle music score by Richard Bowers. In spite of Nelson's quirkiness being under-used, Campbell does defy expectations with her entrance in the way she uses Daniel's gun, gets a laugh from the cartoon chase Daniel has with someone tracking him, and provides a cut from the boy seeing his hanged father to the boy's eyes becoming Daniel's in close-up. Caulfield may not be convincing as a traumatised person, even given he may have been released because he is thought to be better or at least on medication. Presumably he is cast because of his fading pretty boy looks, though Campbell does allows him to parody Purl's anguish in the climax.

i have to admit i'm not a real fan of thriller movies or any movie with violence (but i liked Silence of the Lambs!)...I'm mostly into romance movies like When Harry met Sally, etc. But I really like Maxwell Caulfield (I don't care what anybody says, he was good in Grease 2!) and Linda Purl is always good and so pretty to look at (rememebr her on Happy Days?) So I rented Perfect Tenant and I really enjoyed it. Maxwell is so bad. I mean this in a good way. He's a bad guy. HE's really creepy and sinister. I watched the movie alone and had to make sure my doors were locked. Maybe I'm just paranoid, who knows. But I liked this movie and recommend it!

I wasn't expecting much when I rented it but I was fairly surprised. Overall, "PT" is a solid little flick that accomplishes exactly what it's supposed to. Great performance by Maxwell Caulfield. Linda Purl and Earl Holliman (as daughter and father) are quite good, as is the rest of the cast. Script and all technical aspects are above par. Definitely engaging and worth watching.

This 2000 supposedly thriller was by M. Todd Bonin and Jim Vines from a story by Mark Castaldo and directed by Doug Campbell who also was co-writer. So many guys involved with this and what a mess they all turned out. Won't belabor the story but it's all about deception. In this case a nice all-American good looking young man who rents the guest cottage from a lovely young thing who lives with her father and daughter in the big house. The rest is all suspense, or supposed to be. Linda Purl, as the woman of the house, is not the best of actresses. She was also slow on getting what was going on around her. Why is it the heroine is always brain dead? And then in the end she suddenly gets all this courage and intelligence to do our villain in? Maxwell Caufield, as the young man who moved in, was very good as the villain. I was hoping he'd get away with the crime with all the stupidity around him. Stacy Hogue as the daughter had a few moments, but only a few. She spent most of the time spying on our villain until she finally got the message but too late. Oh, well. Tracy Nelson, Ricky's daughter, I've seen before in something where she was psychotic, but not sure what. She did the most stupid thing by escaping, not outside and she could have, but upstairs where she could get caught. Another stupid mistake. Oh, and the boy friend to Stacy, makes the most stupid mistake. When he's spotted by the killer in the woods, and gets the chance to escape, he grabs the gun and chases him till he's out of bullets. Another stupid character and choice. Melissa Behr plays an interesting role convincingly. However, at first you think she's on our side until she begins to get in trances, one after another. And finally there's Earl Holliman, who's body of work is amazing. His work is respected by many (GIANT, RAINMAKER) but what a waste of that talent in this. However, even in the small role he played, he was the most convincing. Caufield wasn't bad. That's why I wanted him to win. So, I give this 2 stars for Holliman and Caufield, two interesting actors.

"The Perfect Tenant" is a taut, well-constructed little TV thriller with Maxwell Caufield slipping once again into the role of a steely psychopath. Blue-eyed, impossibly photogenic Caufield makes for such an unexpected villain that you can't help but delight in all the havoc he wreaks. There's some genuinely nasty stuff here that wouldn't make it into a similar production today: we get a forced potassium chloride injection, a staged recreation of a Christmas suicide, and some pretty intense trauma flashbacks. I was surprised several times by the approach this film took: it packs up enough fake-outs and feints to keep any made-for-TV thriller addict satisfied.

I appreciated that all the major twists were largely out of the way by the halfway point, allowing us to revel in the mayhem rather than waiting for a big reveal. "The Perfect Tenant" is solid stuff, although one would be advised to check out Caufield in the terrific "Mind Games" first. That movie also features him as a family-disrupting psychopath, but with more of a darkly subversive bent.