Sleep Tight (Jaume Balagueró, 2013)

What's it about? Cesar (Luis Tosar) is the concierge for a Barcelona apartment and greets the residents each day with a friendly smile. But it's all a front. Cesar is pathologically unhappy and wants nothing more but to make people around him unhappy too, especially the pretty and cheery Clara (Marta Clara). And he has the key to her apartment....

Is it any good? From the first scene, I had a few misgivings about the entire premise being rather hard to swallow. But, as the film progresses, it works hard to establish plausibility and in the end it delivers pretty well as a disturbing thriller, one that actually gets more disturbing the more you think about it. This is partly because the film does a good job of inviting us to side with the bad guy, superbly played by Tosar and his magnificent eyebrows, with the result that we are quietly complicit in his actions. In this respect, and in other nods, the Psycho influences are clear to see, but this has enough of its own identity to deserve to be a sleeper hit on rental. If it can get to sleep, that is....

I don't trust you. What do others think? Pretty well received on the festival circuit by audiences and critics alike. I was interested in what my neighbours thought of it, so I've spent the last few nights breaking into their homes to eavesdrop on their conversations. The flaw in my plan was that none of them had actually seen it, but I picked up some juicy gossip, so that was good. And who knew old Mrs Jones in Number 2 was so flexible? But wait! Sssshh! Gotta go, I hear someone coming home. Don't want them to see the glow of my laptop from under their bed. 

What does the Fonz think? Might raise a few eyebrows.

Buy it on Amazon