A motley assortment of people who all reside in a rundown apartment building find themselves being terrorized by a vicious street gang led by the ruthless Chaco (a nicely slimy portrayal by Enrique Sandino).

Director Roberta Findlay relates the gripping story at a steady pace, makes neat use of various seedy inner city locations, builds a good deal of tension, and maintains an unsparingly raw, gritty, and scuzzy take-no-prisoners tone throughout. The jolting moments of brutal and gruesome violence pack a savage punch; said ugly carnage includes a few bloody stabbings and throat slashings, a painful heroin overdose, an equally excruciating castration, and a particularly unpleasant scene involving the business end of a broomstick. Moreover, it's well acted by a capable no-name cast: Joe Lynn as the tough and resourceful Sam Washington, Mina Bern as feisty old lady Ruth, Walter Bryant as the kindly Mr. Wesley, Corinne Chateau as forlorn hooker Carol, Angel David as pathetic junkie Poppo, Rhetta Hughes as the brash Leona, Gy Mirano as the pregnant Anita, Alfonso Manosalvas as the blind Mr. Gonzoles, and Larry Lara as obnoxious blowhard Rojas. The folks who play the gang members have a field day with their despicable characters, with Paul Calderon as the blithely sadistic Hector and Karen Russell as foxy moll Chula rating as definite stand-outs. Findlay's competent no-frills cinematography and the funky synthesizer score by Walter E. Sear and William Fischer hit the spot, too. The proto-rap theme song is extremely catchy as well. Recommended viewing for fans of hardcore rough'n'ready grindhouse fare.

Fed up with their basement serving as headquarters to a gang of violent, drug-taking street punks, the tenants of a run-down New York tenement building inform the police about their unwanted guests' stash of illegal narcotics and firearms; believing the gang to be safely behind bars, the delighted tenants hold a party to celebrate, but elation quickly turns to terror when they discover that the thugs have been released from jail and are looking for revenge.

Just a few seconds of the horribly dated rap theme-song for Tenement should be enough for most sane movie fans to switch off in abject horror, but those who stay the distance (the certifiably insane, lobotomy patients, obsessive fans of z-grade trash) will find that bad 80s music is possibly the least offensive thing about this film: schlock director Roberta Findlay packs her film to the rafters with scenes of mean-spirited violence and sleaze carefully designed to keep even the most twisted of movie degenerates drooling with glee, including several bloody stabbings, a pair of scissors in the face, a throat slashing, and a rape that ends with the old 'broom handle up the punani' routine.

Sadly, while a catalogue of assorted unsavoury acts like this would normally qualify a film as an unmissable exploitation treat in my book, Findlay's typically ham-fisted direction, unconvincing gore, and terrible performances from nearly all involved make this film a gruelling experience for all the wrong reasons. It's not often that a movie can feature so much atrocity, yet still be most memorable for its bad guys' (and gal's) terrible dress sense: sporting cropped vests (tastefully slashed),chains, black spandex, and a fetching range of studded leather apparel, they look like they've either spent the evening partying hard at an S&M club or just been to an audition for raunchy 80s dance troupe Hot Gossip.

Some IMDb reviewers have cited this as their favourite of Findlay's directorial work, although as far as I am concerned, choosing your favourite Roberta Findlay film is akin to choosing your favourite STD.

This is perhaps the highlight of the Roberta Findlay film library. Roberta returns to her South Bronx roots to film on location. A gang who lives in the basement of a large apartment dwelling get ratted out by the super and arrested on charges of gun possession and drugs by cops who don't use cuffs. As the tenets celebrate, our bad guys are out of jail in an hour and return to terrorize the dwellers through rape and killing. With the lone phone line cut, the tenets fight back.

This is semi-Troma style exploitation. 5 stars or 1 star depending on your love for bad films.

F-bomb, sex, rape, impalement, nudity (Corinne Chateau, Karen Russell who was hooker #1 in "American Rampage" and coed #2 in "Dr. Alien." )