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Product Description
A young couple buy a San Francisco house, planning to use its two rental units to help with the mortgage. Their new tenant turns out to be a sadist thAmazon.com
Ever a had neighbor from hell? You know, the one who never cleans, makes too much noise at night with his jigsaw, and breeds cockroaches and pumps them into your apartment? Never have? Well, pump up your paranoia with this outlandish if mildly enjoyable thriller starring Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine as San Francisco yuppies-cum-landlords who rent out an apartment in their Pacific Heights house to mild-mannered Michael Keaton in order to make the mortgage payment. What seems like a happy arrangement all around turns hellish when: (a) Keaton refuses to pay the rent; (b) firmly entrenches himself in the apartment thanks to some legal maneuvering; and (c) starts playing with the cockroaches. Ostensibly, Keaton wants to drive Griffith and Modine to bankruptcy and then pick up their fab Victorian house for cheap, but as is the way of all thrillers, he's got a sadistic and homicidal bent to back up his real-estate envy. Director John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) manipulates the thrills somewhat effectively, if not gratuitously, especially with Griffith's damsel-in-distress character, turning on the tension in the don't-go-to-the-attic/garage/basement set pieces. Part of the problem of the film lies in its schizophrenic tone: one moment it's a what's-in-the-dark? thriller, at other times a nifty cat-and-mouse game of psychological wills between Keaton and his landlords. Both sides of the movie are effective in their own right, and Keaton is a great psycho, but Schlesinger doesn't quite bring it together, despite a considerably amped-up climax. Still, if the sight of a beautiful house being slowly destroyed is your idea of the ultimate horror, you'll be chilled to the bone. Look for Griffith's mother, Tippi Hedren of The Birds fame, in a small role. --Mark EnglehartSimilarProduct
Customer reviews
An excellent movie! 
by .. John (Wheat Ridge, Colorado)
If you haven't seen the movie Pacific Heights, you haven't seen one of the best suspense films of the decade. Michael Keaton is a terrific villain in the worst possible way. It is amazing to watch as Keaton's passive aggressive behavior ruins the lives of an unmarried couple who are trying to purchase an old Victorian home in San Francisco by renting parts of the house out to pay the mortgage. What is even more of a surprise is Melanie Griffith's character ... she is the ultimate heroine. This is an excellent movie that didn't even seem to get the critical acclaim it deserved.
An Engrossing Thriller...The Worst Tenant You Might Ever Have... by .. M. Jarrett (New England, USA)
PACIFIC HEIGHTS is the ultimate story of the tenant gone completely crazy...and completely wrong! This is one of the best thrillers to grace movies besides FATAL ATTRACTION and DIABOLIQUE (the 1960s version).
Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith play Drake and Patty, a couple trying to invest in their dream of buying a house in the beautiful suburbs of San Francisco, and restoring it to rent to the idea tenants. Enter Michael Keaton as Carter Hayes, the conman sociopath who seems at first like the most idea individual to pick as a tenant, but Drake and Patty have no idea what they are getting themselves into when they find out he has welcomed himself into the new apartment. Carter gets them both into trouble in some sinister ways, and uses the law to his full benefit to make everything look like it's Patty, and especially Drake's, fault. Over the course of the movie, these series of events start to take a toll on the relationship between Patty and Drake, and even worse, Carter's breeding roaches in his own place...disgusting! Things get really hairy after Patty does some very clever private investigating and really messes with Carter to the point that the climax of the movie brings it all into play.
Michael Keaton plays the crooked tenant to absolute perfection in one of his best roles as a bad guy. Modine and Griffith have excellent chemistry as the couple trying to fight to knock Carter out of their lives. Even an appearance by Laurie Metcalf makes for some entertainment you're sure to appreciate.
PACIFIC HEIGHTS is one of the best thrillers, great for a Saturday night stay-in or for an introduction into where thrillers got really smart again since the days of PSYCHO and WAIT UNTIL DARK. And you can't go wrong with the wicked performance by Keaton, and some memorable perfomances from the cast all around. PACIFIC HEIGHTS is the ultimate nightmare...and the ultimate experience of tenants gone...well, very mad.
You may not want to be a landlord/landlady after seeing this by .. (Stratford, New Jersey USA)
While watching this video, you may wonder "how could someone get away with this?" Melanie Griffith and Matt Modine are unjustly put through the ringer with this very belligerent tenant played by Michael Keaton. This is scarier and more suspenseful than any of those killing-spree horror flicks made back in the eighties because it's seemingly more likely to happen to some unsuspecting person(s) who just want to rent out their properties to help pay for the mortgage.
Good to watch all the way through by .. ()
Surprising that the studio has forgotten to re-release this on video, because it's one of Melanie Griffith's best movies. Nasty guy infiltrates himself into downstairs area of house that Griffith and her new husband have had to let out as a way of meeting their mortgage. Then he won't pay his rent, he won't leave, and there's nothing the young couple can do about it. For sure, the tenant's peculiar habits are made almost too weird to be credible, but the basic storyline is strong. Unlike some movies of this kind, the ending doesn't descend into exaggerated explosive effects but just tells the story straight. How come the world forgot about this movie?
Squatter's Rights (And Wrongs)... by .. Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein (under the rubble)
Upwardly-mobile couple Patty and Drake Goodman (Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine) buy a $750K house in SF. In order to offset the titanic mortgage payments, they must rent out the two apartments downstairs. At first, all is well, as a nice older couple become the first tenents. The second rental doesn't go quite as smoothly. A man named Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton from Batman, Batman Returns, and Beetlejuice) moves right in w/ what appear to be impeccable references, and a wad of cash in his wallet. Alas, Hayes is not on the level, and Patty and Drake soon find out just how off-balance this guy is! Hayes squats in the apartment, refusing to leave. He causes constant noise that eventually drives everyone nuts! He even releases an army of cockroaches to infest the whole place! The building stress, and inabiliy to legally do anything about it, eventually cause Drake to snap, sending him diving on Hayes for a major beat-down! Well, this action results in Goodman's arrest. Of course, Hayes is seen as just a poor innocent victim in all of this. Goodman is even under restraining order, and cannot come within 500ft of his own home! What can this couple do to regain their property and their sanity? Watch the fun unfold! PACIFIC HEIGHTS is a magnificent Catch-22 type story of the common man caught up in the idiocy of the system. No matter how hard they try, Hayes is always protected by the law. There's a healthy stream of good old fashioned black comedy running through this movie's veins! Keaton is superb as the nefarious Hayes, driven to do what he does by whatever pathology rumbles through his head. I consider this to be his finest performance. Watch for cameos and small roles by Beverly D'Angelo (The Sentinel), Dan Hadaya (Blood Simple), and Laurie Metcalf (Scream 2)! Highly recommend, especially to future landlords...