The Roommates (1973)

The Roommates: Directed by Arthur Marks. With Marki Bey, Pat Woodell, Roberta Collins, Laurie Rose. Heather, Beth, Carla, Brea, and Heather’s cousin Paula are five lovely young ladies who decide to spend their summer vacation at Lake Arrowhead. While at Lake Arrowhead the women hit the party circuit and get involved with various men in the area. However, things go awry when the gals find themselves the targets of a mysterious murderer.

“This movie has been unavailable in any form for many years. Short of driving down to the original Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas when they did the occasional repertory showing, there has simply been no way for most people to see it. Now that has changed with a long-awaited DVD release. And it was actually worth the wait. It isnu0026#39;t that this is a brilliantly conceived movie by master filmmakers, or conversely, that itu0026#39;s one of those largely mythical u0026quot;so-bad-itu0026#39;s-goodu0026quot; films, but itu0026#39;s one where all the elements just happily gel together in a near-perfect exploitation romp.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe format of the story involves four sex college-age girls, who are not all technically u0026quot;roommatesu0026quot;, but are spending summer vacation together in two lakeside houses. The girls each have individual adventures. The black girl (Marki Bey) works at a library and is torn between two lovers, a jealous white stud and a heroic black sheriffu0026#39;s deputy. The blonde girl (Roberta Collins) has a fling with a recent divorced older man. The brunette (Pat Woodell) is supposed to be u0026quot;babysittingu0026quot; her younger cousin (Christina Hart), but they BOTH get involved with a middle-aged womanizer and his troubled teenage son. The last and sexiest girl (Laurie Rose) becomes a nurse at a boyu0026#39;s camp where she helps out a bullied male virgin (although not so much with the bullying part). These separate stories follow the formula established by Roger Corman/New Line in the early 70u0026#39;s with his u0026quot;Nurseu0026quot; movies, but this film does not have the ham-handed attempts at humor or the dated and often annoying faux-feminist politics of the Corman-produced films. Instead it has a giallo-esque killer wandering around picking off the secondary female characters–which is actually a lot more fun.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie actually spends more time creating various red herrings than it does on the murders (they should have called the lake Lake Red Herring), and the identity of the murderer ends up being rather perfunctory and obvious. But the mystery-killer plot does avoid some of the borderline misogyny that mars some of the other films produced by Arthur Marks in that era like u0026quot;Centerfold Girlsu0026quot; and u0026quot;Bonnieu0026#39;s Kidsu0026quot;. This falls between the pseudo-feminist preaching and the sleazy misogyny of the low-budget 70u0026#39;s era into a happy medium of truly enjoyable exploitation.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe five girls, of course, really make the movie. Marki Bey is the best actress. Roberta Collins would have the most substantial exploitation career (although she is somewhat wasted here). TV actress Pat Woodell is serviceable. The best two though are Laurie Rose and Christina Hart. Rose is probably the closest to being a purely softcore sexploitation actress, so not surprisingly she has the most nude scenes, but her acting is actually quite good here. Christina Hart plays a character that alternates between a naive innocent and a malicious young tease (similar to Robin Mattson in u0026quot;Bonnieu0026#39;s Kidsu0026quot;). She is incredibly sexy even with her clothes on. Iu0026#39;d highly recommend this one.”