Along with 'Basic Instinct', this is the quintessential erotic thriller for me. 'Single White Female' is the standard format for how to do an erotic thriller, a textbook example, and the movie has all the good and bad that implies.It's a psychological character study, mainly focusing on the relationship of two single white females who live as roommates. Bridget Fonda plays the protagonist, the insecure and youthful Allison, and Jennifer Jason Leigh her roommate Hedy, who is a quick-tempered and manipulative country girl. The conflict between the characters ebbs and flows, and the movie poses questions about narcissistic behavior and infidelity.There's a bunch of nudity and sex, and some of it is an essential part of the story. One sex scene even directly leads to a character death, one that is really campy and funny. The story is a downward spiral and by the ending sequence the movie has turned into pretty much a slasher horror.

"Single White Female" is about a software designer named Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) who kicks her boyfriend Sam Lawson (Steven Weber) to the curve after having discovered he's been having secret affairs with his ex-wife. Desperate into finding a roommate to help her out financially, she brings in a frumpy bookstore employee named Hedy Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to fill the voids and before you know it, they become the best of friends. But when Sam tries to reconcile with Allison, Hedy's sanity becomes dead as vengeance becomes her priority by trying to keep them apart even if it leads to murder as a way to protect her from getting her heart broken again. Ever since the 1990 Stephen King adaptation Oscar-winning thriller "Misery", many of these psycho-thrillers were cropping up at the time. From "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", to "The Good Son", to "Pacific Heights" and my personal favourite "Unlawful Entry". The common thread of these stories focuses on the realms of middle-class suburbanites putting their trust in someone at first and then before you know it, the person who you've trusted becomes not who he/she is cut out to be. Before you know, it when you least expected, the trusted ones have plots to go as far as to get what they want, even if it means to kill someone along the way with no remorse of conscious of what they're doing. To me these kinds of thrillers are more fun to watch than the slasher films that Jason and Freddy had done in the 1980's. In "Single White Female", the message is that what you may see in the papers may look good in writing, only to realize that you were better off without what you just purchased.As a psychological thriller, "Single White Female" was not as good as the ones Alfred Hitchcock directed, but it's still a fun movie to enjoy and succeeds in this sub-genre. Where it went wrong was that it was too by-the-numbers in terms of its delivery. Director Barbet Schroeder provides the shock value too early in the film that we never get the time to savour the moments. The dog's unfortunate demise, the subliminal messages about the broken iron grille and voices culminating from the apartment vents. The more diabolical scenes stem from when Hedy cuts her hair, dyes it from brunette to ginger and starts wearing Allison's clothes. It was strange, erotic, but quite effective especially when she performs oral sex towards Sam who's oblivious that it's not Allison that's seducing him. But then there are moments where it can be quite surreal when the stab in the head via stiletto shoe displays an awkward scene which feels very cartoon like and seems out of place in a thriller like this. The Victorian apartment set-up is actually effective for a film of this genre. Even though she comes from a long list of A-list movie performers in her family which includes Peter, Henry and Jane Fonda, Bridget Fonda never was able to reach that pinnacle. Her character was quite cold and not entirely that effective. Jennifer Jason Leigh fares much better as the evil roommate Hedy (especially when she dresses like Allison and becomes her evil duplicate), and when her insanity explodes, we are all anticipating as to what menace she's going to commit to next. It's her twitch and nervous delivery lines is what gets grating at times. "Single White Female" to this day stands out as a good psycho- thriller. Not necessarily the best, but has an angle toward this genre that is original and stands out better than the mindless slasher films that were popular in the 1980's. The acting was not the best, but not the worst either and even though there were some engaging scenes, its formula was still by-the-numbers in its delivery. In 2002, Schroeder would direct another psycho-thriller "Murder By Numbers", which fared better as an homage to the actual Leopold and Loeb murders. In 2005, a sequel to "Single White Female" came out with "Single White Female 2:The Psycho" where Kirsten Miller and Brook Burns play similar characters to the ones Fonda and Leigh played. Who knew?

CAUTION: Plot spoilers present.Software designer Allison "Allie" Jones evicts her cheating boyfriend Sam Rawson from their rent-controlled apartment when she discovers that he had been sleeping with his ex-wife. Finding herself lonely in the massive apartment, Allie posts an ad for a roommate. After screening several unsuitable candidates, Allie finally meets Hedra "Hedy" Carlson, a shy bookstore clerk & the pair become good friends. But what Allie doesn't know is that Hedy had lost her twin sister in childhood & has become unstable. When Sam tries to return to Allie's life, Hedy does everything she can to break them apart, even resorting to murder.Single White Female was a thriller that became a hit during the early 1990s – one of a number of psycho-thrillers that made their name at that time. Along with Basic Instinct & the bunny-boiler Fatal Attraction, Single White Female was part of a new era of thriller, which concerned itself less with traditional boogeymen & more with dangerously unstable female characters who latch onto their prey like a lion hunting a gazelle & wreak havoc in their target's families. In this case, the antagonist is a mentally unstable woman who had lost her twin sister in childhood & has become obsessed with getting back the sisterly love that she had lost.The film was directed by Barbet Schroeder, a director who had made some highly acclaimed films over the years. Single White Female was his first genre film & he proves to have an eye for visuals, making plenty of good use out of the massive apartment building that the film takes place in – after a while you get to know the building quite well, right down to the voices that carry through the air vents & the screwdriver-assisted elevator door.As far as thrillers go, Single White Female is passable enough to entertainment although it relies far too much on the basic by-the-numbers thriller mechanics to carry the story across. Schroeder tries to get much mileage from the concept, but doesn't seem to realise that the sexual harassment subplot where the heroine is hit on by her boss needed more work. Having said all that, however, the script is okay.The acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Bridget Fonda seems a bit withdrawn judging by her performance here. On the other hand, Jennifer Jason Leigh has the skill to pull off the unstable flatmate with plenty of class – most notably the scene where she arrives in the boyfriend's hotel room & proceeds to give him a blow job before answering his rejection by stabbing him in the eye with a stiletto heel. The eventual climax tends to resemble a WWE wrestling match but the film makes for a reasonable viewing experience.

There was nothing special on TV and my mom remembered this movie from her youth. For some reason she said "I'm not sure you will like this one..." but I called bulls'hit on that and gave the movie a shot. Wow. Much better than I could have imagined. The look of the movie is pretty cheap. It was made in the early nineties, but looks more like it's from the seventies. But that's not an issue. The story is your typical "first-friends-but-then-one-of-them-goes- nuts" plot, but the execution is marvelous. The suspense is built up very nicely. You feel like something is wrong, but they really don't rush with making it too clear to you why that is. You just feel like... something is odd... about Hedra Carlson. She seems to be fond of Allison in a way that borders on pretty goddamn obsessive. You can't get mad at her since he is nice, but at the same time, you don't really know whether she can be trusted or not. And the more she lives in Allison's apartment, the more suspicious she acts... What really made the movie what it is, is the acting. Bridget Fonda is great and Jennifer Jason Leigh is FANTASTIC. Must be one of her all-time best roles. God, did her character creep me out! She actually fits that role so well you forget it's only acting and not a real person. If that crazy bitch tried to be my inmate, I'd kick her out immediately! The movie's full of darkly grotesque scenes, both subtle and more evident ones. You know the typical scene where someone holds a knife against someone else's throat. Well, this was unlike every other of those scenes I've seen! Gross!!! Of course, it's not a masterpiece. There are some awkwardly out-of-place moments like Allison for no reason whatever watching Hedra masturbating (if it had been Hedra watching Allison instead, the scene would make more sense) and the ending, while pretty awesome, is still very predictable. But if you just want to watch a movie which chills you to the bone and you like a classic thriller, you will love this movie!