USA, 1973
Review:
JA Kerswell
Sexploitation and proto-slasher meet head-on again in Arthur Marks’ THE ROOMMATES. Four nubile college students spend their break at a lakeside resort and summer camp, where they party, have sex and dodge a knife-wielding killer in a black dress. Whilst the thriller elements definitely take a backseat to the titillation and situation comedy, the film is somewhat a bridge between the shockers of the 60s - specifically PSYCHO (1960) - and the sun, lake, fornication and violent death of early 80s slashers.
Carla (Marki Bey) is an anthropology student who says things like: “I do find the study of man very stimulating” and tends to take sexist comments as a compliment. Her friends and roommates are Heather (Pat Woodell), Beth (Roberta Collins) and Brea (Laurie Rose). All young co-eds navigating college life in the early 1970s (although all of the actresses were in their mid-late 20s when they made this). The film takes a somewhat vignette approach during its first half, with seemingly unrelated conversations and situations for either comedic effect or to provide the principal cast a chance to opine on the issues of the day. They touch on women’s liberation whilst reclining in their bikinis on a beach, with Beth telling Carla: “I don’t want to be equal. Who wants to compete with men? I have a hard enough time competing with women!” Whereas Heather tells Brea of her concerns about the environment whilst topless in the communal shower: “We shouldn’t rape the landscape”; to which Brea responds: “I don’t want to rape anyone … I’m more into satin sheets and dry martinis!”
The four discuss their plans for the summer, with them all either holidaying or working summer jobs around Lake Arrowhead. Before they go they have a ‘far out’ party with the medical students at the college that one of them describes as an “orgy” - but mostly consists of again small comedic vignettes, a topless game of doctors and nurses and drunk chess.
Once at the lake, Heather visits her childhood vacation home and is joined by her younger cousin Paula (Christina Hart). There they find a mysterious, but handsome drifter, Don (Kipp Whitman), who Heather begrudgingly offers handyman work to. Whilst the other women begin to start their pursuits of sexual adventure and summer fun, Paula begins a tentative romantic relationship with Arnie (Gary Mascaro) the shy and socially awkward teenage son of the local motel owner. Arnie is desperate to escape the constant criticism of his mother (Barbara Fuller) and the arguing with his father (Ken Scott) (who is having an on-off affair with Heather). Soon, somebody in a black dress and carrying a knife is prowling the woods searching for nubile co-ed flesh. Believe me, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out …
THE ROOMMATES operates in its own groovy universe. Like the teen sex comedies of the 1980s it’s a wild exaggeration; displaying a sun-kissed, hot-pant fantasy summer of 1973. Nobody acts like a real person. One night two of the women are chased around their house by the killer with a knife, but it’s forgotten in the morning. A co-ed is shot dead whilst waterskiing (!) and another is knifed to death in the woods, but it’s soon back to flirting, sexcapades and margaritas. The thriller elements are largely superficial, but the lakeside and summer camp setting is surprisingly prescient of Sean S. Cunningham’s later FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980). Cunningham was moving in the world of sexploitation in the early 1970s, so it is very possible that THE ROOMMATES provided a glimmer of inspiration for the setting of that film. However, the grim and unsettling THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972), which he produced with Wes Craven directing the year before, is the polar opposite of this movie.
THE ROOMMATES juggles the sex fantasies of men (in one sequence Brea seduces a teenage boy she is a camp counsellor for) with the idea that these are liberated women in charge of their own destinies - knife-wielding killer notwithstanding. Of course, the script was written by men - Marks and John Durren - and it’s hard to swallow some of the dialogue the women have to say. Given some of their stiff line deliveries, it seems they weren’t that convinced, either. Yet, other times the actresses seem to be revelling in it all - especially as the film heats up. And it’s worth pointing out that men don’t get let off that easily either - with most of them painted as creeps and letches. It’s difficult not to get caught up in the giddy polyester zaniness of it all.
Its mixture of sexploitation and proto-slasher murder mystery seemingly inspired a small rash of other similar drive-in classics, such as THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS (1974). Ferd Sebastian’s similarly plotted THE SINGLE GIRLS was made around the same time and released in a regional roll-out a few months after THE ROOMMATES’ February 1973 debut (Sebastian’s film is often erroneously listed as a 1974 release it was being distributed to screens as early as April 1973). Incidentally, John Durren - who here appears briefly as a sleazy hippy biker - went on to both write and appear in another proto-slasher in 1974, DEVIL TIMES FIVE.
Arthur Marks is an interesting character. Born into Hollywood (his father worked on THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)), his first assistant director credit came in 1947 for the Orson Welles’ vehicle for his then-wife Rita Hayworth, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. However, he really found his groove with 1970s exploitation and Blaxploitation titles such BONNIE’S KIDS (1972) and J.D’s REVENGE (1976). THE ROOMMATES has an exceptional exploitation cast list. Marki Bey went on to appear in Paul Maslansky’s horror Blaxploitation mash-up SUGAR HILL (1974) the next year. Pat Woodell retired from film acting after this but had earlier appeared in Jack Hill’s WIP classic THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971) alongside Roberta Collins. Collins was in another earlier proto-slasher SWEET KILL (1972), as well as an impressive list of cult films such as Vernon Zimmerman’s UNHOLY ROLLERS (1972), Jonathan Demme’s CAGED HEAT (1974) and Tobe Hooper’s DEATH TRAP (1976). But she might be best remembered as Matlida the Hun in Paul Bartel’s DEATH RACE 2000 (1975). Laurie Rose was also in another proto-slasher, Frank Mitchell’s BLOOD VOYAGE (1976).
THE ROOMMATES has some interest to slasher fans because of its similarities to later summer camp slashers of the early 1980s. Whilst its thriller elements are relatively pretty minor otherwise (which explains its middling score here), but fans of 70s exploitation movies will find plenty to enjoy.
BODY COUNT 6:
Female 3 / Male 3
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