A path of twisted silverware lead down a harshly lit anachronistic tenement hallway. It leads to a locked door lit up in red lighting. A young Joanna is awoken from her violent nightmare. In her dirty, cluttered tenement bedroom she finds that she has injured herself with one of the many sharp implements within hands reach. This is her section of solitude in the quarantined apartment building. Here, in Tenement 45, she is sardined in with multiple families, all under the watchful eye of her arrogant aunt, Martha.
The apartment’s inhabitants have been in lockdown after the city of New York was evacuated and a quarantine order was issued in the wake of the Soviet Union’s biological weapon attack. The events before the quarantine are vague and the specific health crisis is kept out of focus.
The heart of the story is the effects of being quarantined for months on end. It comes into focus as food has begun to dwindle down. The children of the apartment have been blossoming rebellious attitudes and the adult leadership progressively worsens. Power struggles begin to intensify between the adults and children in heated arguments and unfounded accusations.
DARKNESS IN TENEMENT 45 traps us in the tight spaces with the characters
Joanna’s nightmares intercut many of the scenes, with intense lighting and unsettling imagery populating her mind. The sympathetic scenes between the supporting cast contrast with her deteriorating mental state. Friendships blossom and attractions develop while Joanna struggles to keep her violent thoughts at bay even as she assumes a leadership role, being one of the oldest children and the one with the most ambition.
As the mounting pressures of a pandemic put pressure on the apartment, Joanna begins to experience more nightmares and outbursts. Nightmares that had ended in screaming, now end with a hand tightly gripping a pair of heavy scissors. Joanna’s mental health is affected not only by her containment but also by an antagonistic relationship with her aunt Martha, someone who views her mental illness as a great darkness, insisting it is something to be locked away and kept under watch.
Even though the children themselves are beginning to fear Joanna, they want to see the world outside of the room. This is something Joanna herself has seen, even if it was just for a brief moment. They look up to Joanna as the one to make their wishes happen. But is her mental health too deteriorated and erratic to take on that position?
Darkness in Tenement 45 is a moody and claustrophobic outing. In this writer’s view, the film excels with its small character moments, interesting turns by the supporting cast, and its erratic shots and lighting sequences. You too may feel, though, that it nonetheless falls short on story resolution or deeper commentary. It is perhaps the perfect viewing as we ourselves are trapped inside our rooms with whatever people we’re trapped with.
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To learn more about where to watch the film visit the webpage for Darkness in Tenement 45.
Director: Nicole Groton
Writer: Nicole Groton
Composer: Logan Rees
Cast: Nicole Tompkins
Cast: Casey Kramer
Cast: Anthony Marciona
Cast: Keyon Bowman
Images courtesy of Darkness in Tenement 45.
