10 Great Yuppie Horror Movies
Back in the 90s, America wanted the 50s... it got it in pieces, literally and figuratively.
Yuppie - short for "Young Urban Professional" - was a commonly used term stand-up comics and social critics liked to throw around in the late 80s to early 90s. You knew who they were when you saw them.
They were the first on the block to own one of those dictionary-thick cellular telephones and they had no time for you, because their pager just went off. They had their 401ks set and their children, should they have any, were already on the shortlist of the best pre-kindergarten schools in the neighbourhood. This was pre-Internet, mind you, so their jobs were always in advertising or remedial architecture. They were attractive and lunchtime was crunch time. They managed to afford prime real estate and they never, ever struggled. Naturally they inspired a whole cultural movement, including movies.
But they were also depressed. The cultural ennui surrounded and suffocated them. And, worse, they had well-paying jobs. The era of the yuppie came to an end with an explosion - two, in fact.
The first took place at the end of Fight Club, where it is revealed Edward Norton's pre-Y2k yuppie - so bored with buying items from IKEA and The Gap - destroys a large number of buildings after rejecting his inner chaotic muse. The second occurred not long after, when the dot com bubble burst, leaving young urban professionals adrift and, for the first time, bereft of their own entitlement.
There had always been an anxiety pinned to that identity and it bled into movies in such a way that an entire genre was borne out of it...
10. Single White Female
Barbet Schroeder's 1992 erotic thriller is yet another film in which youthful characters live in obscene wealth, yet long for more. This time, software designer Bridget Fonda seeks the titular roommate (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who slowly begins to emulate her new friend, right down to the haircut.
Things get increasingly more disturbing during the infamous high heel through the eye scene. One would hope the film's gender politics would attempt to be less than exploitative but, then again, this was the early 90s.
Its legacy is even more telling regarding its policy toward women, spawning a direct-to-video sequel in 2005 and a cheap ripoff entitled The Roommate.