Entertainment
Twisted 90s, R-Rated Comedy Thriller Will Drive You To The Brink Of Insanity
By Robert Scucci
| Published
I can’t think of anything more terrifying than moving into a new home, settling in, and starting a new chapter in my life, only to find out that somebody I don’t know has been living under the same roof the entire time, eating my food, using my toilet, and rummaging through my sock drawer. While I have nothing to hide in my sock drawer (unless you consider my socks incriminating), it’s still an invasion of privacy I do not take lightly. This is the exact kind of nightmare that unfolds in 1992’s The Vagrant, a comedy thriller that starts with a clear conflict but slowly gaslights its star into thinking that no such intruder exists at all and may instead be a creation of his unraveling mind.
Constantly toying with your perception as you try to piece together its mystery, The Vagrant taps into the kind of suburban paranoia that makes you want to invest in a state-of-the-art security system, only to be laughed out of the neighborhood because nobody believes you’re in any actual danger, but rather the cause of it.
Movin’ On Up
The Vagrant follows Bill Paxton’s Graham Krakowski, a pencil pushing financial clerk who is finally on the verge of landing the promotion he’s been grinding for. His hard work pays off and he buys a house in the suburbs, only to run into serious problems right away. The day he moves in, he catches a homeless man (Marshall Bell) a little too comfortable in his new residence, as if squatting there had become a routine long before Graham closed with the realtor. Graham immediately feels a looming sense of unease because he can’t convince anybody in his life that the man is doing any harm or even exists.
First, Graham’s best friend and work buddy, Chuck (Marc McClure), spends the night to calm him down, only to witness Graham sleepwalking and acting strange. Things escalate when Graham gets the vagrant arrested for alleged public urination, but the authorities still dismiss his panic. It doesn’t take long for the vagrant to be back on the streets where he continues tormenting Graham, who at this point is the only person who has had any troubling encounters with him. Graham’s girlfriend, Edie (Mitzi Kapture), is eventually pushed over the edge after one too many outbursts, leaving him after he blows a huge chunk of his savings on new furniture and a high-tech security system that clearly wasn’t cheap.
Soon after, two murders occur, and Graham believes the vagrant is responsible. As luck would have it, he’s dealing with a clever tormentor, one who wastes no time incriminating him for the crimes by planting evidence in the house. The vagrant still has easy access to the property despite the new fence, lights, cameras, and locks, while Graham starts to doubt himself and wonders if he’s losing his grip. Could he be responsible for the murders, and imagining the vagrant as a coping mechanism? Or is he the only person who sees the situation for what it is?
Bill Paxton Is In His Element
As absurd as The Vagrant gets, Bill Paxton goes all in on the premise. His facial expressions alone are so animated that you can’t help but root for him as his life gets torn apart by the vagrant. As he takes his lumps and desperately tries to move forward, he becomes increasingly unhinged, reinforcing the idea that he may not be in the right state of mind.
He’s juggling relationship problems and mounting financial issues because the vagrant refuses to leave him alone, and he spirals so hard that it becomes impossible to tell whether his experiences are legitimate or fabricated. It doesn’t matter, though, because Paxton has so much fun tearing through each set piece that you stop caring how this journey ends and just enjoy the chaos.
Not quite as surreal as 1991’s The Dark Backward, The Vagrant is one of those unhinged comedy thrillers that always felt destined for cult status. Its premise, however, is the stuff of nightmares because every so often, we do see real-world home security footage leaked online that confirms our worst fear.
Sometimes somebody actually is living in your crawl space, sneaking out only for a snack while you’re sleeping or out for the day. While the idea of not being alone in your own private space is legitimately horrifying, The Vagrant shows that if it’s not happening to you, it can be very funny watching someone else fall apart.
The Vagrant is streaming on Tubi.
