[Review]: Landlord

Adama Abramson as the Bounty Hunter

Having had its world premiere at Grimmfest 2025, LandLord directed by Remington Smith is a biting commentary on poverty, peripatetic lifestyles and property ownership combined with a traditional tale of humans versus vampire.

An anonymous Black bounty hunter (played by Adama Abramson) enters a poorly managed apartment complex in order to retrieve a stolen briefcase, but her mission is soon interrupted by Alex (played by Cohen James Cooper), a newly orphaned boy whose mother has died by the hands of their landlord–who just so happens to be a vampire. The bounty hunter and Alex soon find themselves in a fight for survival against the vampiric landlord (played by William McKinney), his familiar Christopher (Lance Gerard) and the local law enforcement that is in the landlord’s pocket. Alex is hellbent on revenge and the bounty hunter swears to keep him safe. 

Having been written, directed, produced, and edited by Remington Smith, LandLord has a gritty realism, presumably owed to his background in documentary work, and displays a snapshot into a very real situation in society. Just like The People Under The Stairs (1991), Landlord is a social commentary on the exploitation that tenants– that are usually of a marginalised community– experience at the hands of white landlords. In this film, the landlord is metaphorically represented by a parasitic bloodsucker–the vampire. 

Whilst the symbolic messaging in LandLord is a commendably utilised theme, unfortunately the film’s narrative falls somewhat flat as it develops, becoming just another stereotypical vampire film that audiences have seen a hundred times or more. Although it is nostalgic to see a modern film obviously influenced by the vampire films of the 1980s such as Fright Night (1985) and The Lost Boys (1987), it just needed to deviate from the typical plot line of most vampire films in order to really hit home with its thematic messaging. 

2 Screams out of 5