The Roommate
The Roommate is a 2011 horror-thriller released by Screen Gems.
College freshman Sara is randomly assigned to a dorm with a stranger named Rebecca. They start off as friends, but things turn deadly as Rebecca begins to obsess over Sara.
Despite its similarities, it is not a remake of or a sequel to Single White Female as many people believe. It just rips it off to hell and back. (Ironically, Screen Gems is a low-budget sister company to Columbia Pictures, which made... you guessed it.)
Currently[when?], the screenwriter of the film is scripting Crush, a Yandere film that sounds suspiciously like another film, Swimfan, which in itself was a rip-off of Fatal Attraction.
Tropes used in The Roommate include:
- Brains and Bondage: Well, either fashion designer Irene just happened to have a ballgag lying around, or talented artist Rebecca went and got one.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Stephen saw Sara while playing drums for about three seconds.
- Fan Service: Tracy's shower scene, with the gratuitous shots of her stomach.
- Dawson Casting: Minka Kelly was born in 1980 and Leighton Meester in 1986. New college freshman in February 2011 would have been born in 1992.
- Does Not Like Shoes / Foot Focus: Rebecca is barefoot at all times in doors.
- Good Bad Girl: Tracy is really nice, she's just kind of flighty. Rebecca disapproves of this, very much.
- ~Hey, It's That Guy!~: Lyla Garrity and Blair Waldorf are roommates. Marti Perkins and James also go to school with them.
- And Mia Jones was Rebecca's last victim.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Sara. It doesn't make her a bad person, but her roommate is a psycho, her best friend drunkenly ditches her at a frat party, her (married) fashion design teacher (who she insisted on having) wanted her sexually, and her boyfriend spills beer on her and tries to take her up to his room five seconds after meeting her.
- Hot for Student: Professor Roberts lost his job over it.
- I Just Want to Be You: Rebecca's intention toward Sara.
- It's unclear whether this is her intention or whether she wants to be Sara's sister. Or lover.
- Ironic Echo: "You were never my friend."
- Lipstick Lesbian: Irene.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Leighton Meester admits that she held back during the scenes where she fought Minka Kelly, out of fear of injuring her (the two have been friends for years). She apologized to her after every take.
- Psycho Lesbian: One possible interpretation of Rebecca.
- Recycled in Space: Single White Female IN COLLEGE!
- Stalker with a Crush: Rebecca.
- Straight Edge Evil: Rebecca is a Puritanical devout Christian with a horror of moral decadence.
- Ties in with Stalking Is Love.
- Yandere: Rebecca.