THE ROOMMATE: The Hughes Verdict!

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT:

She’s cute. She’s loyal. She’s psychotic. And, unfortunately for college freshman Sara (Minka Kelly) she’s The Roommate. When Sara arrives at school, she finds new romance with Stephen (Cam Gigandet) and forms a fast friendship with her roommate Rebecca (Leighton Meester). What begins as camaraderie soon turns creepy, and Sara comes face-to-face with the terrifying realisation that her new best friend is obsessive, unbalanced…and maybe even a killer!

  THE HUGHES VERDICT!

Over recent years there seems to be a new craze developing in the film world.  A phase which I will call “Teen-Make“.  It seems really good films of old are being re-made for teenage eyes, a policy that the older generation will frown at.  Rear Window has become Disturbia, Dangerous Liaisons changed to Cruel Intentions and finally Fatal Attraction morphed into Swimfan.  The results are safe to say have been nothing more than mixed with only Cruel Intentions having that guilty pleasure vibe which even today I enjoy only for the bitch display from the one and only Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  The one thing those films have in common though is that they are following the blue print of great originals, films that are loved by many.  Sadly The Roommate is taking its style from Single White Female, a film itself that was not that good to begin with.

SWF came out at the tail end of the psychopath genre that dominated late 80’s and early 90’s horror.  When Glen Close decided to make some bunny soup, a whole new bandwagon leapt out thanks to her psycho mistress and in the space of a few years we had every nut job in shape or form has a cop, a lover, a Step dad, a Step mum, boyfriend, girlfriend, and countless others.  In case you wondering what films are they then I will give you a few to refresh your memory, –Unlawful Entry, The Crush, The Stepfather, Fear, well you can work out the rest!

You can see the impact Fatal Attraction had and the very average Single White Female jumped on the genre with its psycho Room-mate which somehow spawned a piss poor sequel a few years back.  This new horror takes that concept and makes it all 90210 and its so lazy plotting that they could not even bother with a good old title, I mean  The Roommate tells you all you need to know about the film.

Sara checks into College and is greeted with a new friend who has serious issues and the film goes from one lazy pitch to another.  There is nothing new on offer here, nothing at all to get excited about, the only emotion you will get is the frustration at the Director Christian  E. Christiansen who really treats us like idiots by believing we will be surprised at the outcome that develops.  After their friendship is born, the two friends buy a cat, now I knew what was going to happen to that poor moggie and so do many others who watched horror in the 90’s, I mean that kitty would not reach any of his nine lives.  Also do you remember that bit in Single White Female when Jennifer Jason Leigh copied the hairstyle of Bridget Fonda, well here we see Sara have a tattoo around her heart of the name of her dead sister, in honour to remember her by.  Well guess what the heck happens when the 2011’s version Rebecca spots it.  Well if you are still wondering then maybe The Roommate may be the one for you.

For me I wasted a whole 90 minutes of my life watching this crap.  The script is so bland that it was not even laughable even thought the performance of Meester has the psycho bitch shows that there could have been potential if  everyone had the balls to do it.  The only time for me when the film showed any dark edge which is required in any good horror/thriller is when Rebecca starts a lesbian tryst and also when she beats herself to a pulp to make Rebecca believe she has been a victim of an attack.  The rest is just a poor lame thriller that makes no sense to an average viewer.  Even when Rebbeca has an hint that all is not well with her new friend she does nothing.  The only time she walks away is when she find out Sara takes anti-depressants and even by that action it makes you wonder why Rebbeca is so keen to be a pyscho friend to woman who really has no sympathy.

Even worse, it seems everyone behind the camera knew they were making a dud so they tried to add some sexual energy by having Rebeeca masturbate in bed which instead of making me horny made me realise that poor old Messter is really giving her all in a film that does not deserve such a strong performace.  If you want to see a good pyscho houseshare film then The Roommate is not the one, then again neither was the film that this inspires to be!

 Rating:

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