‘The Apartment Complex’ Has Some Vacancies

There’s nothing terribly complex about Showtime’s oddball film “The Apartment Complex,” and therein lies the problem.

Directed by Tobe Hooper (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) and written by Karl Schaefer (TV’s “Eerie, Indiana”), this pokey made-for-TV mystery is a film in which nearly every broadly drawn character orbits the unassuming protagonist, in this case a mild-mannered psych major (Chad Lowe).

Eager to live rent-free and simultaneously study human behavior for his grad school project, Lowe’s eager-to-please Stan accepts a job as apartment manager at a less than desirable building in Hollywood.

There, he meets a paranoid CIA agent (R. Lee Ermey), a couple of scuffling stuntwomen (Tyra Banks and Gina Mari), a jealous jerk (“Seinfeld’s” Patrick Warburton) and his alluring girlfriend (Fay Masterson).

For good measure, there’s a flamboyant police psychic (Amanda Plummer), the sleazy apartment owner Dr. Caligari (Jon Polito), and a pair of cocksure cops (Ron Canada and Miguel Sandoval) who illogically suspect Stan offed the building’s previous manager, whose corpse is pulled from the filthy pool.

Oh, and then there’s the mysterious tenant who hasn’t left his apartment in several years.

Throw this gallery of goofs together and instead of sly amusement or suspenseful scenarios, we get trite allusions to rats running around in a maze.

Freud could have had a field day with these flakes, but we didn’t.

* “The Apartment Complex” can be seen Sunday at 8 p.m. on Showtime. The network has rated it R (may be unsuitable for children younger than 17).