Appeared at the 10th Annual San Diego Film Awards (2024)
A tyrannical landlady rules over her tenants during an epidemic, pitting them against each other in a deadly web of paranoia. BayView Entertainment dropped the low-budget “Hemet, or the Housewife, Don’t Drink Tea.” on November 26th on digital and VOD platforms, and I was finally able to watch it today at 5 am.
This movie really carves its niche: you can call it a gritty slasher drama, and that pretty much sums up the wild ride it offers
If you like humor that’s dark and a bit snarky, and if you don’t mind a few over-the-top social and political jabs, then Hem is definitely worth a watch. I was both amused and laughing at the mix of crude jokes and clever satire that was so bad it somehow worked in its favour.
in a dilapidated apartment building run by the deranged Liz, played by Butler in drag with lots of make-up
Directed by Tony Olmos and written by Brian Patrick Butler, the film revolves around a strange group of people who are forced to live. He keeps his tenants – Martin (Merrick McCartha), Gary (Matthew Rhodes), Howie (Pierce Wallace) and Tank (Nick Young) at bay – by threatening to evict them, raise their rents, or lose perks like their parking spaces.
For me, the standout moment of Hemet is Brian Patrick Butler’s performance as Liz
He does and snarls and says lines like, “You’d better have a second job selling dick soaps or bath salts because your rent just went up a hundred dollars a month…” and "I drink four things: blood, cum , coke, and rum. ..