Tasteless piece of Grand Guignol from Barbet Schroeder, a director who should've known better. Independent New York businesswoman Bridget Fonda, having just broken up with her fiancé, advertises for a female roommate and feels an immediate kinship with Jennifer Jason Leigh, a straggly, down-to-earth young applicant who may not be exactly what she seems. Film begins with razor-like precision, including an eerie prologue, but becomes increasingly outlandish, queasy, predictable and ridiculous as the plot thickens. By the overbaked finale, with Fonda swinging down from the rafters, the movie has all but imploded, leaving a depressing pile-up of bodies in its wake. *1/2 from ****