Concierge apartment César Manso believes he was born without the ability to be happy. In order to fill this void, he decides to make everyone around him miserable. While his tenants are easy to upset, young woman Clara proves herself to be a bigger challenge....
Tropes:
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: César warns Ùrsula who tries to blackmail him for the murder of Marcos that he knows where her grandmother and friends live.
- Ax-Crazy: César, although of the calm and collected kind. He seldom ever goes out of his way to physically hurt anyone, instead opting to gradually crush their spirits, but when he does get physical, it's brutal.
- The Bad Guy Wins: César succeeds in ruining Clara’s life and gets away with all of his crimes, including murdering Marcos.
- Bald of Evil: César is balding and he's also a sadist who loves other people's pain.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing : Downplayed. César acts friendly toward Clara and Véronica to manipulate them but otherwise is a jerk to everyone.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Ùrsula blackmails César with knowledge of his crimes against Clara for money and adult movies. It comes back to bite her, however, when César threatens her after she tells him she saw him murder Marcos.
- Break the Cutie: César spends the whole movie trying to do this to Clara. He succeeds by the end.
- Break Them by Talking: César does this to Véronica when she comforts him after he gets fired. She isn't seen again for the rest of the movie, so it's unknown what became of her afterward.
- But We Used a Condom!: Clara and Marcos have an argument because she's 4 weeks pregnant and they didn't have sex for the last six weeks and they always use condoms.
- Dirty Kid: Among the many things Ùrsula extorts from César in order to remain silent, she also demands porno movies.
- Downer Ending: César murders Marcos, ruins Clara’s life, including leaving her with his child and gets away with all of it and has gotten a new job and is implied to continue ruining more people’s lives.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted. César visits his mother in the hospital and at first seems to actually care for her, but later he taunts her about how she probably wishes she aborted him.
- Evil Is Petty: César is such a reprehensible piece of shit that calling his boss's plants ugly just to see the look on his face is pretty comically low on the list of bad things he's done to people.
- Faux Affably Evil: César in public always acts polite and gentle. Of course this is only a facade to hide the sick monster he truly is.
- For the Evulz: Downplayed. César makes bad things happen to innocent people 'cause, as he says, it's the only way he can be happy since he thinks he was born without the ability to feel joy. However, the unnecessary sadism he takes in doing that and the cruel way he admits his crimes at one point, makes you realize that he's pure evil in nature.
- Frame-Up: César frames the cleaning lady's son for his harrasment of Clara by slipping yellow envelopes in the boy's wardrobe.
- Here We Go Again!: The movie's ending implies that César has found a new job and intends to ruin more lives much like he did to Clara.
- Instant Sedation: Played straight when César chloroforms Clara although it's possibly justified since she's already sleeping. Averted when César accidentally spills chloroform on his face but is able to walk to hide in the bathtub.
- Karma Houdini: César gets away with his crimes.
- Kick the Dog: Almost everything César has to say is this in some way, shape, or form. That sweet old woman who's nice to everyone asks him to take care of her dogs and even gives him a slice of pie? He feeds the pie to one of the dogs knowing it'll make her sick, then goes to tell the woman that her dog will probably die. The same sweet old woman offers him sympathy when he loses his job? He lets her know that everyone in the building secretly hates her and talks about her behind her back, crushing her spirit as she heads on up to the elevator and a tenant asks if she's okay. He even visits his terminally ill mother in the hospital just let her know that he's out there ruining peoples' lives while she cries, realizing what a monster she raised.
- Lack of Empathy: César never expresses remorse for the lives he ruins, since the only thing he cares about is his own happiness and amusement.
- Nice Girl : Clara who's always friendly and cheerful and Véronica the old dog lady who's always nice to César and comforts him when he gets fired.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: César's plan to break down Clara but putting coackroaches eggs in her apartment backfires badly since she simply requests he fumigate the place and moves in with her mother for a few days where César can't torment her. For a few days at least.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: César always speak with a cool and soft tone of voice.
- Villainous Break Down : César breaks down and contemplates suicide after his attempts to torment Clara seemingly fail, feeling he has lost his reason to live. He gets over it when he overhears Clara and her boyfriend having an argument....
- Villain Protagonist: César the concierge who agitates his tenants and actively attempts to ruin the life of Clara.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Véronica disappears from the movie after César crushes her spirit. It's entirely possible there's a good reason for this.
- Would Hurt a Child: After Ursula tries to blackmailing him for the murder of Marcos, César threatens to throw her out of a window and kill all of her friends if she tries to say anything.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: César is very good at working around new circumstances to ensure that he doesn't get caught.
