

Retro Review: Single White Female (1992)


Stalker movies can be the most terrifying movies made. Movies like Cape Fear capture the fear of a stranger following you around. What’s even creepier is a friend stalking you and that’s what we get in Single White Female. I’m still not sure why parents let me see this movie. There was way too much nudity for a 14 year old.


This movie has been made in a variety of different ways. The most recent version being 2011’s The Roommate starring Minka Kelly. The Roommate shamelessly borrows from SWF but has a PG-13 tag. I’m not sure this type of movie can work if it’s PG-13. If SGW wasn’t R, we wouldn’t have some of the movies iconic scenes.

The Set Up – Allie breaks up with her boyfriend after he tells her “I didn’t go over there to sleep with her line.”  In need of financial support, she puts an ad in a paper to find a roommate. Allie quickly finds a nice girl named Hedy. The two girls seem to get along just fine and are great roommates.

The Crazy – I blame Allie for not picking up that her roommate was a little off. The following things happen BEFORE she starts realizing Hedy is a few eggs short of a dozen:

  1. Allie catches Hedy staring at her in the mirror. Maybe not the creepiest thing, but I would be making a mental note.
  2. Hedy getting a dog without consulting Allie about it. That’s extremely disrespectful in my book. It’s absolutely uncalled for.
  3. Hedy sneaking up behind Allie and aggressively asking where she’s been. There’s concern, there’s Mommy Jr, and then there’s creepy friend who doesn’t understand boundaries. Hedy was most likely President of the last group.
  4. Allie gets a suspicion that Hedy is spying on her and her boyfriend having sex. That’s more than enough to kick her Hedy.
  5. Hedy kills the dog. I’m not sure why animals always get hurt in stalker movies. I think they must automatically put that in the script.
  6. Allie finds Hedy’s mail and finds out she’s been lying and even stole a letter from her boyfriend. I’m not sure how Hedy is still in the house after all of this went down. Allie is clearly on borrowed crazy time at this point.

The Sequence – The craziest sequence in the movie starts when Hedy and Allie go to the salon. Hedy comes down with the exact same hairstyle as Allie. Same cut. Same color. That scene when she comes walking down the stair still makes me laugh. It’s so crazy it’s funny. Who does that? What makes it worse is Hedy’s nonchalant attitude about the situation when Allie is clearly pissed. That hilarity is followed up by Hedy going to Sam’s house pretending to be Allie. She climbs into bed with Sam and starts engaging in a sexual act. Sam says “Oh Allie” followed by Hedy saying “It’s not Allie.” What makes this scene so insane is Sam doesn’t stop. Not only does he not stop, he even cuddles up with her afterwards. Wait. What? This girl pretends to be your girlfriend to sleep with her and you just are lying in the bed with her…………..ok. I don’t believe Sam didn’t know who it was. C’mon nobody is THAT sleepy where they don’t recognize a woman they’ve dated for years. It was easy for him to go along with it. Sam threatens to tell Allie what happened and Hedy gives him a stiletto to the eyeball.

The End – Hedy realizes Allie knows she’s been lying about everything so she confronts her. Hedy ties up Allie and tells her they have to run off together because everyone is going to think Allie committed these crimes. This leads to the movies 2nd insane sequence of Allie’s creepy boss coming over and trying to save her. I’m not sure why people have such a hard time with Hedy. She has to be about 100 pounds with rocks in her pockets. Of course creepy boss loses the fight. I’m still not  sure how there were gunshots, screaming, fighting, and wresting, but nobody else in the apartment complex heard a thing. Very interesting.

Allie and Hedy end up getting into another fight and this one ends in Hedy choking Allie out. Allie pretends to be unconscious. I really like the fake choke out move. It would be my go-to move if I was attacked in a movie. How would they even know you were faking? Hedy leaves and comes back to find Allie missing. Allie swings down from the ceiling and stabs Hedy in the back killing her. Where was all this athleticism earlier in the movie? How did you get tied up if you could move around like an Olympic gymnast?

What makes SWF an awesome movie is the absolute craziness. Any guy who has had a stalker girlfriend can relate to the crazy that happens in this movie. Any woman who’s had a very obsessive friend understands it as well. We don’t want to believe the the peole close to us are crazy but sometimes that’s often the case. SWF seemed so wild in 1992 but could easily be a story ripped from the headlines of today’s paper. The story of the overly obsessive friend is a tale that people can easily relate to. There’s a reason why this type of movie has been remixed numerous times.

Where are the now?

Bridget Fonda (Allie) – Starred in Point of No Return, City Hall, Jackie Brown, A Simple Plan, Finding Graceland, and Kiss of the Dragon.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (Hedy) – Starred in The Road to Perdition, The Machinist, The Jacket, Synecdoche New York, and Greenberg.

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Tim Hall