Being highly in the mood for some cliched horror nonsense (No joke, I actually was) I decided to succumb to temptation and give The Roommate a watch. This teen thriller follows newly arrived college student, Sarah (Minka Kelly) meeting roommate, Rebecca (Leighton Meester). Sarah begins to notice strange behavior from Rebecca, slowly realising that Sarah is a danger to herself and her friends.
This is slammed straight in the centre of the teen horror genre, there’s nothing overly original or unexpected about the film, which I quite liked. This film isn’t trying to be anything than we actually see, it’s a glorified B-movie and good fun. Rebecca’s behavior becomes more and more laughable throughout the film – ranging from wearing Sarah’s clothes, to pretending to be Sarah and having phone sex with her ex-boyfriend (Matt Lander, who wouldn’t?!) and placing disgustingly cutsie kitten (named Cuddles, obviously) into a tumble dryer, where she softly informs poor Mr. Cuddles ‘Don’t worry it’ll be nice and warm’ . This is just one example of the cringing dialogue you’ll experience. There’s also the rather entertaining moment when Rebecca shows unsuspecting Sarah her favourite painting – a picture of a demented nurse who has hacked away at her own throat – now if that doesn’t prompt concern about her roommate then she deserves all she gets!
After seeing her performance in this, I thought Leighton Meester was pretty appalling, so over the top and cliched on all levels – from the sinister glaring looks from afar to the obsessively detailed etchings of her roommate. I have been told by friends Meester is actually a decent actress and to check out Gossip Girl, so I’ll give her another chance. And to be fair to her, there’s little she can do as an actress to improve such a hilariously awful role. I did however, enjoy the performance from Mika Kelly who’s confusion is truly the representation of the audience at several “WTF moments”. However, the character had great potential to be such an interesting Scream Queen, which is never really developed in this – she’s more of a ‘shocked face Queen’ than a Scream Queen. The film features the usual array of man candy from Cam Gigandet’s extremely fun turn as Sarah’s boyfriend to Matt Lanter’s smaller role as her ex-boyfriend. Another host of teen stars feature in varying roles from The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev to Easy A’s Alyson Michalka – showing what sort of audience the film is squarely aimed at.
The scares are extremely predictable, as is the ending but what do you expect from a traditional genre film. Director, Christian E. Christiansen, seems to have a love for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (Actually more likely Gus Van Sant’s Psyhco) with the film having a few shower scenes and the trademark graphic match from an eye. However, I think Christiansen’s take on the shower scene (Belly button piercing’s being ripped out) would prove even too much for Sir Alfred.
The film is laughably bad at points, brings nothing new to the genre but does provide a bit of fun if you don’t go in expecting to see a future classic. If genre films aren’t your cup of tea, give it a miss – otherwise enjoy seeing that little cutie, cuddles’ trip in the tumble drier. So as genre films go, I’d give it a solid…
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