THE RESIDENT (2010)

THE RESIDENT is a thriller about a female doctor who moves into a new apartment, only to find herself attracting unwanted attention from a mysterious 'Peeping Tom'. The film was classified '15' for strong violence, sexual threat and strong language.

The film contains multiple uses of strong language throughout and therefore exceeds the terms of the BBFC’s Guidelines at '12A'/'12' which state that 'The use of strong language (for example, 'fuck') must be infrequent'. However, at '15' the Guidelines allow for 'frequent use of strong language'.

In the climactic scenes of the film, there is some strong violence as the heroine fights off her attacker with a knife and a nail gun. While there is no strong detail of wounds being inflicted, because the actual impacts are often masked by the characters' positions, there is some focus on blood loss and, after the fatal blow has been struck, clear sight of a nail embedded in a man's forehead. In these final scenes there are also some moments of strong hand to hand fighting as the attacker tries to strangle his prey and punches her heavily. These scenes exceed the 'moderate violence' permitted by the Guidelines at '12A'/'12' but are allowable at '15' where there may be strong violence, provided it does not 'dwell on the infliction of pain or injury'.

As the heroine is observed by the 'Peeping Tom', there is a strong sense of sexual threat, especially in those scenes where she is watched while bathing or where her stalker caresses her while she sleeps. The film does not include any scenes of direct sexual assault on the central character, although she does watch video footage of the stalker undoing his trousers as he stands over her as she sleeps. What happens next is left up to the imagination of the viewer as the camera focuses on the heroine's horrified face only. The audience is not invited to empathise or identify with the stalker, as he is quickly established as psychotic and unstable.

The film also contains some scenes of nudity as the central character prepares to bathe, an implied scene of masturbation where all detail is hidden by bath water, one scene of strong medical gore as a man has open heart surgery, and some more moderate language, including aggressive uses of 'bitch'.