It is based on the 1913 novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes, filmed previously by Alfred Hitchcock in 1927, by Maurice Elvey in 1932, by John Brahm in 1944, and as Man in the Attic (1953) directed by Hugo Fregonese.

The film follows two parallel stories, one being about a troubled detective (Molina) who plays a cat-and-mouse game with an unknown killer and the other being about an emotionally disturbed landlady and her relationship with an enigmatic "lodger" (Simon Baker).

Ellen Bunting takes the lodger, Malcolm Slaight, to see the room and he immediately agrees to rent the guest house but says several times he cannot be disturbed since he is a writer, and needs complete quiet.

Joe does not believe she has rented the guest house because he never sees anyone coming or going from the premises, and because he knows his wife has episodes where she imagines things and needs to take medication.

Manning notices a garbage can near the murder site with BATTY written on it; when he opens the lid, he finds a pair of bloody underwear that belong to one of the victims.

Joe, getting tired of what he thinks is Ellen's hallucination, forces her next door and tells her he doesn't want to hear another word about the imaginary lodger if they see no one in the room.

Manning and Wilkenson begin investigating the suspects that are known to frequent the area where the killings are taking place, and this brings them into contact with Joe Bunting.

Since he threatened the evidence clerk while at the station, they feel this - combined with his personal life - is causing him to lose touch with reality and they place him on suspension.

Ellen, believing Malcolm is guilty but not caring, goes to the guest house to wipe it clean of any evidence he was ever there, and disturbs a cabinet, causing a gush of red liquid that appears to be blood to spill from it.

Though the police and the press accept that this is the truth and Ellen is the killer, Manning does not believe it and the last scene is Malcolm, at a new residence in Santa Monica, looking for new lodgings.

The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is "An accomplished cast can't save a derivative suspense flick that manages to confuse and bore rather than thrill."

Filled with second-rate Brian DePalma twists, noirishly blurred lights and usually solid actors mouthing potboiler brine, The Lodger resembles bottom-shelf '80s dreck.

"[8] Robert Abele wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "This strained, empty effort doesn't work as homage or update, and in its darkly violent sensibility has neither the glamour of Brian De Palma's referential nightmares or even the narrative fuel of the serial-killer-obsessed procedurals that dominate TV.

"[9] Ben Walters attacked the film in Time Out, writing " the real crime is the travesty writer-director David Ondaatje perpetrates on Alfred Hitchcock".