Condemned is about a group of people who live in a condemned building in NYC until they become infected by poor plumbing that creates a toxic mixture of bodily fluids, meth and chemicals that drive the inhabitants mad. The vaguely normal inhabitants are the insane superintendent, the young band mates and their respective girlfriends. The rest of the squatters are a neo-Nazi homosexual dom & submissive couple, an Orthodox Jewish drug-addicted, abusive man who lives with and violently exploits his Black trans-girlfriend, and the drug-addicted ex-model and her boyfriend. The most intriguing inhabitant is Cookie, the local drug dealer, who does something inexplicable that sets the movie on its claustrophobic denouement. (If anyone understands why he did what he did, please explain it to me.) There are one or two more tenants, but they are mostly forgettable.
Condemned initially seemed promising. Condemned seemed to be a retelling of Babel based on the opening narration, the initial introduction scenes and the apparent confusion before infection. Condemned seemed to suggest that the internal rotting of the building was a reflection of the people’s souls and an attempt at being immortal or achieving perfection. They are in exile from God or the real city, but their fate is inextricably tied to those around them. If they spit in God’s face, will everyone get infected?
Condemned starts strong in its opening scenes-in terms of narrative and alternative visual techniques, but as it unfolds, it seems more like a prurient, gross-out dare for the audience and actors. Condemned could have been Mulberry Street or a low-rent Rec, but devolved into a B version of The Divide meets violent Garbage Pail Kids with a dash of Romero socioeconomic underdog ambition.
As Condemned progressed, I kept asking myself if the squatters were always crazy or did they devolve into madness because of the building? Which came first: the chicken or the egg? By the end, I did not care. I completely forgot what made it initially intriguing and began to think that the director had a bunch of cool things that he wanted to try and checked them off as he shot them, but was smart enough to use the strongest material first.
Still I wonder if with more time and money, Condemned could have been something more or would it still just be filled with a bunch of gimmicks such as casting Sean and Robin Penn’s daughter or a Hearst. Each does an adequate to above average job respectively, but not worth waking up John Waters for. Condemned is an ambitious failure and should be skipped if you abhor violence, S&M and gross horror.