By Jackson Woods
Vampires need permission to enter your home, but what if a vampire was your landlord? This was one of the many ideas that lead to the creation of Remington Smith’s independent film, “Landlord.”
Smith, an associate professor of film at U of L, took an interest in filmmaking while doing programming for the campus theater. Originally considering teaching history, he ultimately decided to marry the career of teaching with his passion for film.
“It helps balance out some of the isolation that comes with independently producing movies,” he said.
Smith cited a number of film influences from his childhood, including the 1987 Shane Black film “The Monster Squad.”
“It’s about a group of kids who are in peril. And it’s weirdly kind of dark for kids movie. And I just really identified with kids that had to kind of handle themselves because I grew up really poor in a lot of different rough environments,” he said.
His first films were casual zombie thrillers, where he used friends as cast members and various abandoned buildings as sets. Following some fun, action-heavy movies, Smith directed a third zombie film with emphasis on heartfelt narrative, which won a Best Film award.
“There was just like a little gold star on the fridge that made me go, maybe I should keep doing this,” he said.
“Landlord” is Smith’s first feature film. He describes it as “a social commentary horror movie about this black bounty hunter who moves into a rundown apartment complex, but then finds herself forced to protect this orphan boy from the white vampire landlord. And so part of the idea is part of the vampire lore – if vampires can’t come to your houses, about being invited in, what happens is they own your housing, then they can come and go as they please and use it as a private chicken coop.” He calls “Landlord” a social thriller, comparing it to the likes of Jordan Peele’s “Nope” and “Get Out.”
Smith drew from his own experiences when he came up with the idea.
“I grew up in apartment complexes like the one in the film, and I figured it was a very easy metaphor that doesn’t have to be pushed of understanding this idea, like, think we get this idea that landlords are preying on people financially,” he said.
Smith even described the main character, a bounty hunter played by Adama Abramson, as a darker version of who he could have become.
“Struggling to get out of poverty and escape a certain home life situation, there’s a certain amount of selfishness and discipline that that requires. But can you take that so far that you ignore your sense of responsibility and humanity to other people?” he said.
Most of the film was shot in Louisville.
“I spent a long time scouting out locations. So we shot an apartment complex that’s just off Dixie Highway. The lair of the vampire is just this mansion off of Cherokee Park,” he said.
He found it important to include and compensate U of L alumni on the set, recognizing his personal journey in those involved.
One of the most daunting aspects of producing a feature film, he said, “is the pressure to nail your logistics consistently with no problems for 25 days in a row. And we just got ridiculously lucky, where we never got rained out. No one was hurt – so for a first feature, it’s kind of insane how well it went.”
“LandLord” is a cross between a drama and a horror movie, “and so it’s going to be interesting to see where we land our premiere, are we too dramatic for horror festivals? Are we too scary for drama/art house festivals?”
When asked about special thanks, Smith said, “Definitely my wife. I’m sure everybody says that, and nobody gives it much thought. But, unless you’re married and are in a creative field, she has read every draft in the script. And my in-laws helped watch my son while I was basically gone during that period.”
“Landlord” will be approximately 91 minutes long. It stars Adama Abramson, Cohen Cooper, Lance Gerard, and William McKinney. You can follow the film on its IMDb page, website, or Instagram page(@landlordfilmofficial). No official release date is planned.
