1BR, the latest from Dark Sky Films, presents a nightmarish scenario for a young renter with big dreams of making it on her own. After leaving a painful past, Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) beats out many other hopeful applicants to score the perfect Hollywood apartment of her dreams. Despite the ideal locale and welcoming community, her new rental harbors dangerous secrets.

Out of Fantasia last year, our own Joe Lipsett called writer/director David Marmor’s feature debut, “a smart, satisfying thriller that will make audiences reevaluate the true cost of the perfect apartment.” Also starring Giles Matthey, Taylor Nichols, Alan Blumenfeld, Celeste Sully, Susan Davis, Clayton Hoff, and Earnestine Phillips, 1BR is arriving on April 24th, 2020 on your favorite VOD outlets.

Ahead of its release, we look back at horror’s biggest tenant terrors, the genre movies that transform rental dreams into disturbing nightmares.

1408

Not a rental in the traditional sense, but Mike Enslin (John Cusack) finds way more than he ever bargained for when he books room 1408 at The Dolphin hotel. He specializes in debunking paranormal activity and refuses to be swayed by hotel manager Gerald Olin’s (Samuel L. Jackson) discouragements, warnings, and bribes to take a different room. No one lasted more than an hour in 1408 for nearly a century, and 56 have died in it. The cynical Enslin takes it as a challenge. He almost immediately comes to regret his choice thanks to the room taking on a life of its own.

Single White Female

Allison’s (Bridget Fonda) recent string of bad luck both professionally and romantically leaves her in dire need of a roommate to share her New York City apartment. Of the applicants, she chooses Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a quiet and lonely woman. The roommates become fast friends until Hedy starts getting too close for comfort, too soon. Making herself over to look just like Allison, Hedy then starts ensuring any that would dare to get in between she and her roommate suffer greatly for it. Some at the cost of their lives. No apartment is worth it if it means sharing with a psychotic and deadly roommate.

The Shining

Jack Torrance looks at his job opportunity as winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel as a means of reigniting his writing career and repairing family bonds. His family’s room and board are covered; all he has to do is look after the empty, sprawling place during off-season. Too bad the place is haunted by great evil, which takes a horrific mental toll on Jack. The Torrance family will never be the same, and the proprietors of the hotel will regret their hiring decision once winter is over.

Dark Water

There are dream homes, and then there are the homes we have to forge when life’s hardships throw major curveballs our way. The latter is the case for Yoshimi Matsubara, a woman learning to support both herself and her daughter while amid an unpleasant divorce. That means reentering the workforce and choosing a less than ideal but affordable apartment that happens to come with a ceiling leak that grows bigger every day. With that leak comes creepy paranormal activity that threatens what little control Yoshimi has left over her life. Dark Water is a rental nightmare that’ll give you goosebumps then break your heart.

Sleep Tight

Jaume Balagueró’s psychological thriller unleashes skin-crawling terror thanks to one demented apartment concierge. Cesar believes himself to be utterly incapable of happiness. More importantly, he adheres to the adage that misery loves company, and adores finding creative ways to make the tenants in his building as miserable as he. Most of the residents are easy to disturb, so when new tenant Clara seems unflappable in cheer, Cesar makes it his mission to destroy her. The torture he inflicts is downright bone-chilling.

Burnt Offerings

Ben Rolf (Oliver Reed) and his wife Marian (Karen Black) think they’ve struck gold with their new summer rental. A grand estate with enough space to keep their son entertained, with an affordable bargain price thanks to the kind offer from the home’s eccentric owners, the Allardyce siblings. There’s only one caveat; the Rolf’s must provide meals for the elderly Allardyce matriarch locked away upstairs. A simple task that proves to be far more sinister when the Rolf family finds themselves and the house changing, and not necessarily for the better. Some rentals are haunted, and some are an evil force of nature.

Crawlspace

A sadistic son of a Nazi surgeon runs an apartment building, and he’s rigged it with booby traps, hidden rooms, torture devices, and crawlspaces so that the young victims he rents to won’t suspect his nefarious plans until far too late. Klaus Kinski stars as the evil landlord. Talia Balsam plays Lori, the young twenty-something woman who responds to his ad for a new vacancy. Even the most coveted apartment locales aren’t worth the trauma she’ll endure.

Dream Home

Cheng Li-sheung works two jobs to save up enough money to purchase the apartment of her dreams. It’s an all-consuming dream, explained over time in non-linear fashion. A series of mishaps and misfortunes, though, cause her goal to fall further out of reach. Li-sheung is willing to go to absolutely any length to keep her dreams alive, though, including murder. Combining social commentary, biting satire, and a gruesome slasher, this tenant’s nightmare is one that might feel a bit too relatable for comfort.

The Sentinel

In horror, sometimes the perfect home chooses you. For Allison Parker, a desire to strike out on her own finds her in a gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone that’s been converted into apartments. It’s a fantastic piece of real estate, but the place is packed with bizarre neighbors and strange activity. Allison soon finds herself haunted by both memories and unwanted visitors. Eventually, though, poor Allison discovers that she didn’t choose the apartment – the denizens of the building chose her. The sinister evil of the place has a specific purpose in mind for her.

Rosemary’s Baby

Meddling neighbors seems like a small price for the ideal apartment in a perfect part of New York City, right? Despite warnings from a friend against the place, and meddlesome new neighbors, Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) is ecstatic that she and her husband Guy were accepted into the Bramford apartments. Shortly after, she mysteriously becomes pregnant, and things get weird. Her husband’s sudden career success leaves him vacant, and her health deteriorating. Her peculiar neighbors might have a lot to do with it, and a horrifying Satanic conspiracy unfolds.

To discover the tenant terrors of 1BR, look for it on VOD on April 24th, 2020, via Dark Sky Films.