Single White Remake
Anyone who watches "Single White Female 2: The Psycho" expecting a sequel should remember this is a direct to video movie and is not really a sequel but a remake. There are different characters and a bit of variation on the original "Single White Female" but for the most it retells the story. When you take that in to account what you have is an inferior but watchable movie which is almost entertaining in its inferiority but if watched in the hope of another exciting thriller will leave you disappointed.
Holly (Kristen Miller) and Jan (Brooke Burns - Borderline Murder) not only share an apartment but they also work for the same PR company and are going after the same promotion. Whilst Holly thinks she has pulled a fast one by setting up her boyfriend David (Todd Babcock) as a client Jan unscrupulously sends Holly off on a fake business trip and then sleeps with David. After discovering this betrayal and looking for somewhere new to live Holly meets Tess (Allison Lange - Next Stop Murder) who seems perfect; a shy, timid nurse with a huge apartment she wants to share. But then Holly soon discovers Tess is not as shy as she thought and starts copying her, dying her hair the same colour as Holly and becoming very possessive.
So I will say it again "Single White Female 2: The Psycho" is not a sequel but a direct to video remake which makes sense in the fact the first movie had closure and couldn't be realistically expanded upon. But it is not a pure remake; it basically takes the main elements of the story, boyfriend betrayal and a psycho flat mate and then gives us different characters and situations. It also throws a few story variations in there as well; the whole boyfriend betrayal bit is switched up with Jan being the one to cause him to cheat.
But in truth "Single White Female 2: The Psycho" is an inferior remake of "Single White Female" and fails to create the same atmosphere which made the first movie so good. Now that may be down to familiarity but it also maybe down to the sexing it up, not that the original movie needed much sexing up. There are numerous scenes of women in their underwear, teasing us with cleverly placed towels so that we see nothing as well as an erotic night club scene. And there is also an unimaginative sex scene which in truth could have been done using stock footage as there is no personality to it.
As for the acting well to be honest it was okay; Kristen Miller is watchable as Holly and Allison Lange as Tess manages to recreate that fragility which Jennifer Jason Leigh delivered in the original. But it does seem that the women have been partly cast because they look good in underwear, which is certainly the case of Brooke Burns who as Jan over does the evil side to turn the character into almost a sexy version of Cruella de Vil.
What this all boils down to is that as a direct to video sequel which is really a remake "Single White Female 2: The Psycho" is bearable but if watched with expectations of a clever sequel with a new storyline and a sense of danger it is disappointing.
