6. The Roommate (2011)
Original: Single White Female (1992) Sleazy, erotic thrillers of the late 80s and early 90s were very much of their time; this didnt stop the makers of 2011s the Roommate liberally borrowing to the extreme with their riff on 1992s Single White Female. Directed by Barbet Schroeder, Single White Female isnt a classic by any means, though it is an iconic, gloriously trashy thriller with its roots firmly planted in the 90s and features a great performance from Jennifer Jason Leigh. Leigh plays Hedy, new roommate to Bridget Fondas Allie. As the film rapidly progresses so does Hedys obsession with Allie, her actions become more and more disturbing, more and more psychotic, culminating in a deliciously bloody showdown in a way only the 90s knew how. The film deals with guilt, obsession, rape and murder, yet its knowing and pulpy quality prevented it from being truly disturbing. Superficially The Roommate was, well, the same, so what went wrong?
In a performance that is perhaps the films greatest positive, Gossip Girls Leighton Meester plays Rebecca, the roommate, the equivalent of Leighs Hedy, who becomes more and more obsessesed with Sara (Minka Kelly). The films differ in that The Roommate makes the odd choice of making Rebecca explicitly bipolar, removing any mystery around her psychiatric state. Add this to the modern, technology filled setting and a young promising director who perhaps could have chosen his first studio US studio project more wisely and the result is rather underwhelming. A B-Movie at its core, Single White Female was made when Jason Leigh was at a career high and sleaze-fuelled thrillers were the order of the day; think Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, Basic Instinct. Not only was The Roommate poorly made, it came 20 years too late, though with the recent popularity of 50 Shades of Grey, who knows what around the corner.