Having seen a lot of Lifetime movies before, especially a lot of Lifetime horror movies, I can tell you that they’re a totally different breed of horror. They like the cat and mouse game, the slow building of tension, and they’re not very big on gore. They also seem to emphasize personal relationships, and what happens when those relationships go horribly wrong. This is a look at a movie that probably will end up on Lifetime before too much longer, The Roommate.

The Roommate follows pretty much exactly what it says on the box, as Sara, a college freshman from Des Moines (which is actually a lot bigger of a city than most give it credit for) who’s going to school in some kind of fashion design capacity. Her roommate, Rebecca, is an artist who’s just a little on the creepy side. She’s very protective of Sara, constantly calling and following her around and doing little things to make Sara’s life better. Oh, and of course, there’s the death threats and the animal murder and the blackmail…it’s clear, Rebecca will do anything for Sara. Anything. Legal or otherwise.

Of course, guys watching the proceedings will find Rebecca ragingly creepy and wonder, why doesn’t Sara just, you know, move away from the lunatic before she goes all ground-zero on whoever happens to be standing by–which will actually happen toward the end in a grand scene of mayhem contained in a space about the size of a larger than average bedroom. But this is not a universe ruled by logic–this is a universe ruled by emotion and caring and sensitivity, not a universe in which people act in their own best interests. That makes the whole thing a little on the strained side–Sara’s clearly not acting in a fashion that promotes staying alive–but once you accept the fact that Sara’s priority is to not hurt Rebecca, the whole thing at least makes sense.

I’m just kind of happy that there are actually some guys who play the hero in this one, not just exist to be evil and creepy (like Sara’s design professor) or as faceless ciphers or victims (like everybody who isn’t Sara’s boyfriend Whatsisname, who’s basically only here to keep Sara from getting killed outright).

Still though, clearly, a horror movie geared toward the Lifetime crowd can still do a pretty nice job of being scary. Though it takes it a while to get started–this one’s going to spend probably a lot more time than necessary setting things up–the ending will prove to be sufficiently satisfying to make it worth the cost of a ticket. It’s not the greatest of horror movies, sure–those hoping for hot naked horror babes will be sorely disappointed here as this is a PG-13 title (an ominous development for many horror fans)–but it will cover the basics at least passably well, and likely be a great way for horror movie buffs to get their girlfriends involved by giving the ladies a scary movie they should be able to relate to.

I’ve seen better, in all honesty–you want a scary movie you’ve got bundles of them to enjoy at home–but you’ll do all right with The Roommate. Because while I’ve seen better, I’ve also seen vastly, vastly worse.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this admittedly rather tepid horror romp a six out of ten for doing better than many, but not nearly as good as the best.