This movie, of course, has it's fans but I just found it tedious. It is not the constant shouting, running up and down the stairwell and the bloody violence that is in itself boring but the manner in which it is depicted. The direction is all over the place, sometimes really effective but often embarrassingly poor. Even without a storyline and with over and under acting, if the vision of the director is focused then we as the viewer can indulge in the resultant movie, be it good, bad or indifferent. The inconsistency continually forces us to reappraise what it is we are watching and with 'Tenement', we are bombarded throughout with clichéd situations, dialogue and camera angles. Were this a film made by complete amateurs, strangely I think it would have been better. It is the very existence of occasional effective moments that continually makes one so aware of the trashy, carelessness of so much else.

I am a great fan of this movie. The first time I saw it (I was 18yoa) I was blown away !!!. The actors of course are not going to win any academy awards for their performances here, but the intensity and brutal violence of this flick cannot be denied. I was a punker kid growing up in L.A. so it reminds me of youth. There are many scenes in this movie that will forever be engraved in my mind, like when "Chaco" and the rest of the gang smoke PCP in the junk yard and in a drug rage vow "to take their building back!!" Brings tears to my eyes(sigh)......... The gang even kills a blind man's seeing eye dog, isn't that just too classy!!!??? Well, you got to see this movie. I'ts one of my favorites. Hail Chaco !!!P.S. "Dead Boys can't fly" is another winner.

A piggish gang of inner-city punks embark on a sadistic killing spree inside a ruinous low-income housing facility, intent on making the building "their own". Some truly vexatious scenes of gleefully exacted torture and murder make TENEMENT one of the most inclement exploitation films of the 80s. Rather deficiently crafted for the most part, this is still possibly schlock-queen Roberta Findlay's most technically accomplished effort, and it actually features a few uncommonly decent performances. TENEMENT is a deliberately discomforting urban horror film recommended explicitly to those seeking a challenge to their humane sensitivities and emotional sang-froid...not exactly a "feel good movie of the year" nominee, but it certainly meets its grievous objectives head-on. Be aware of what you're in for.5/10

This film has the entire tenant squeal on a drug dealing gang to the police, only for them to get out, and one by one, they go to each tenant in the floor, killing and torturing them in an ugly fashion, making their way up to the top floor tenants, as the tenants either run to the top, or just stay in their rooms, waiting for their inevitable deaths. You see some repulsive violence, as well as pure sadism that would make Abel Ferrara proud as it out-Abels Abel Ferrara films in capturing the down right seediness and the hopeless and the no way out living of being holed up in these poor buildings. With each new death, you just realize there is no way out for these poor souls, and that they are facing inescapable death. Very grim, especially being directed by a woman! The ending is very corny, which kind of shifts the mood of the most of the film, almost ends like a Monty Python skit, but ignoring the last 5 minutes, this is a ride into despair and hopelessness that you will soon not forget. Just down right ugly! You'll will NEVER want to rent a New York poor apartment house after seeing this film!