The Roommates

Moviecut—The Roommates

I came across a blu ray double feature with this and A Woman For All Men (havent watched that 1 yet) and went in without knowing anything about the film, outside of the description on the back of the box. Overall the film looks remarkable, with vibrant colors, and good cinematography. Cast is all adequate-good as well. The plot is where things stumble, with a general incoherent sense about it, and far too many long takes of girls just awkwardly dancing to the 70s tunes (the music itself, while cheesy, was fun). Once things pick up, at about an hour in, it is definitely a fun ride, and sadly the violent finale is somewhat more poignant today, however the film as a whole was entertaining, and thus I give it a passable 6/10. Tl:dr: looks good, cast is quality, jiggling ladies, and a wack ass story. Thumbs up, recommended.

Near the opening, it shows two of the women in a public shower, showing some skin while having a conversation about how nature's natural beauty shouldn't be exploited... but that's exactly what they're of course doing by flashing their * for the camera in a cheap film, so the hypocrisy is quite funny. They probably thought if they showed two women at least sounding intelligent and talking about politics, then they could get back to the real business of showing their * and exploiting them. How weird but hey man, that was the 70's. Pat Woodell is in it and is of course beautiful and smart. It's sort of too bad she never did more in the way of quality work because she had the talent and the looks, however she probably did the intelligent thing by getting out of showbiz. I won't bother describing what happens because others have mentioned the details, but if you like funny, campy movies, then this one will probably not disappoint.

Well this was a real time waster wasn't it? You have four (4) young liberal ladies strutting their stuff and their personal lives clashing with some of the local yokels. But wait...there is a killer on the loose who appears to be a woman? No wait....maybe it is a guy in drag....no wait....maybe the killer is a woman? Does it really matter who the killer on the loose is? we know how this story is going to end and quite frankly whoever the killer is when we eventually find out do we really care? No, and I will tell you why. There is no substance to this 1970's low budget film filled with actors and actresses who seemingly were just happy to have made any film and see their stage name run through the end credits. Speaking of the end credits the best piece of this film were those magical two words...."THE END" I rated it a 3 out of 10 simply for the producers trying to convince their audience this was a suspense/thriller film. NOT!!!!!

I mostly agree with The Hoyt's review except where he says initially that "this is not a very good movie" and that Arthur Marks had "low standards." Marks was, IMO, an underrated exploitation master and "The Roommates," while perhaps not as good overall as "Bonnie's Kids" or some of his other films, is nonetheless a great, lost drive-in classic that screams the 70's. The 70s hair. The clothes. The beauty. The music. The drama. The sex. The murder. The comedy. It's all there, in ample proportions. If only my summer jobs during college were half as exciting (LOL). Entertaining and worth seeking out at any cost for fans of the genre.