6 “Original” Films You Didn’t Realise Were Actually Remakes
2. The Roommate
Speaking of teensploitation rip-offs, heres a PG-13 version of Single White Female that excises all the blood, nudity and thrills from Barbet Schroeders 1992 film, which wasnt that great to begin with.
The Roommate is really the Beverly Hills 90210 of psychothrillers theres no plot, and no characterisation beyond good and evil, so its just 91 minutes about the lives of good-looking people you couldnt care less about. They wear the clothes the producers want you to buy, listen to the CD soundtrack and chase the MTV Awards demographic, who nominated Minka Kelly in the Best Scared-As-Sh*t Performance category.
Because were talking PG-13, Rebecca (Leighton Meester), the movies ersatz Jennifer Jason Leigh, conducts the kind of bloodless rampage unseen since the days of Poverty Row quickies. When shes not subtly suggesting her fragile mental state by stabbing the furniture, Ersatz Jennifer is blackmailing The Creepy Teacher or threatening The Slut which, considering shes about as menacing as a Smurf riding a unicycle, proves remarkably successful.