This is the kind of movie that you wish you could see in some rat infested grindhouse, perhaps with some nodding junkies and working girls thrown into the audience for the right effect. A real pedal to the metal pound the shit out of you kind of exploitation movie that seemed to thrive in the seventies (though this down and dirty ditty was made in 1985) but you don't really see to much of anymore.

TOO VIOLENT TO BE RATED! The back cover copy proclaims this proudly, and while this isn't Day of the Dead gory (to name another movie from the same year that was released without a rating) there are a couple of scenes that are definitely uncomfortable cringe inducing. And if there are any of you folks out there still square enough to think that women can't direct really brutal pieces of work, there are scenes that Roberta Findlay pulls out in this movie that can stand knee deep in blood with the meanest Sam Peckinpah had to offer.

Tenement (aka Game of Survival, which is the title the print used for the dvd actually bears) begins by setting up some of the tenants in a run-down apartment building somewhere in the South Bronx. You have elderly tenants who can't afford to live anywhere else on their fixed incomes. You have a single mother trying to make ends meet. A prostitute and her junkie boyfriend live in another of the apartments. None of them live there by choice, they live there because they have to. And then there's the real bad news.

In the basement of the building, a bunch of local gangstas, thugs, and smugglers have set up their own personal squat. When we first see them, one of their number takes out a rat by hurling a switchblade knife into its torso, and proceeds to taunt the other members of the gang with the carcass. (There is actually more nasty business done with rats over the course of the movie. In her commentary, director Findlay says on a couple of occasions that she felt the rats were the stars of the movie.) Paul Calderon, who some of you may recognize from his work with Quentin Tarantino and Abel Ferrara, makes his screen debut as one of the gang members.

When the building superintendent finally grows a pair of testicles and calls the cops, the tenants of the building are overjoyed. They throw a little party and in some cases, a few of the tenants meet their neighbors for the first time. They begin to feel like things might turn around for them. But the cops can't really pin much on the gang of street toughs, so before you know it they're back out and looking to kick some ass on not only the superintendent, but the tenants as well.

They let you know right up front that they mean business. They begin by breaking into the apartment of the single mother, and what follows is ... well, I'll leave that for you to see. It isn't pleasant, let's put it that way.

And once they've started their rampage, they work their way up, paintin' each floor a shade of red with such business as dog killing, throat slicing, a lot of torso stabbing, and at one point the thugs are so excited by what they're doing that a couple of them engage in blood-smeared sex.

The movie exploits a good deal of tension from the somewhat deliberate pace of the gang from floor to floor. And it dramatizes how they trap the folks inside and keep them from reaching any kind of help. There is a nice little buzz sequence that portrays what happens to anyone foolish enough to try and get outside the building.

The movie has a documentary feel to it, but that could be the result of a couple of contributing factors -- one, the low budget, which probably didn't afford them the ability to do much with stylized lighting, but also the fact that Findlay actually grew up in a building much like this one, so she knows what kind of little background details we need to see in order to really get a sense of the place. In the same way that the house is the star of many a ghost movie, here the building is what really links together what could be a messy bunch of plot strands.

That's also because the writers, Joe & Joel Bender and Rick Marx, develop some backstory to deepen the characters. And it's to their credit that these moments don't undermine the tension ... they invest them with just the right amount of depth so that when someone gets it in this movie, you really feel bad for them.

A pretty famous horror screenwriter said there are two kinds of horror movies, the sadistic horror movie, where you take a certain glee in the demise of the characters, and the masochistic horror movie, where you share the fear of the characters. Masochistic horror movies are harder to make, because you have to invest that depth in the characters that this movie gives you in order to make it work. This is the best kind of masochistic horror movie.

Media Blasters has put together a nice little disc for the movie. An interview and commentary track with director Roberta Findlay does contain some overlap of information between the two but are still worth listening to (and/or watching). She does give aspiring filmmakers some useful advice, like how to get free cases of Jack Daniels for your production, and she manages to remember what are now 20-year-old events for her with a great deal of detail. There are also trailers and tv spots, and a gallery of stills and publicity materials.

One clue, however, that this movie was made in 1985 that I should mention: it has one of the worst pop/synthesizer title tunes with some seriously old-school rap that does get stuck in your head, especially if you hear it a couple of times under the menu.

So beware ...