Watch The Lodger

This version of The Lodger is the third revision of Alfred's Hitchcock's historical first murder plot film. Today's version, still derived from the novel of Marie Loundes by the same title, has Director Ondjaatje at the helm. Mr. Ondjaatje is also the screenwriter for this production. Alfred Molina, Hope Davis and Shane West portray the leading characters in this modernized thriller. The setting is 2009 and the city is metropolitan Los Angeles. Being set in today's Los Angeles, the screenplay and direction benefit from the cognizant availability of 2009 forensics and DNA testing that were unavailable in the former two Hollywood versions. This permits a knowledgeable factual base line for the film story evolution. Two simultaneous stories run throughout this film, braided together into one master plot. The psychologically unstable landlady who rents a room to The Lodger suspected of being the serial killer terrifying the city has her own convoluted issues. This unstable character thereby is as important to the film's progression as the villain's monstrous evil. Concurrently, the fanatic obsession of the jaded and distraught detective attempting to bring the killings to an end has a strong plot line of its own. His own inner struggles both goad and hamper his search for the monster butchering countless women of the city. The fore-mentioned two mated plots run within and together comprise the main plot of The Lodger, character title of a vicious serial killer targeting prostitutes. There is strong inference that the Lodger is another Jack the Ripper fiend mastering the horrors. His character plays against the ordinary and unsuspecting citizens of the city and challenges the pursuing detective's clinical obsession with him. There is a volatile surprise ending new to this 2009 film version of The Lodger.