10 Great Yuppie Horror Movies
1. Bad Influence
Curtis Hanson's 1989 thriller pits a young James Spader living in an unimaginably expensive L.A. condo against Rob Lowe's mysterious, hard-edged sociopath.
After being pushed around at his office job, Spader is convinced by Lowe to fight back just as underhandedly as his professional rival. But it doesn't stop there. Lowe sends Spader's yuppie through a drug-fueled field trip from which he refuses to let him out.
The trip through the L.A. underground in the early 90s is heavily featured (to near-hyperbolic effect), and the screenplay by David Koepp is Brett Easton Ellis writ large. Interestingly, it also sets the stage for Hanson's view of Los Angeles he later revisited in L.A. Confidential (the massive oil pumpjacks off in the distance hover menacingly in both). Lowe himself believes it to be an underrated classic.