In a survey by Pew Research Center, 1 in 3 adults in the US are living with an adult roommate who is not their romantic partner. On March 1st 2022, Netflix released a Limited Docu-series: ”Worst roommate ever”. It’s a twist on true crime, four tales, told by the victims and based on people who really did live with the worst roommates on earth.
The documentary captures stories of people from all backgrounds. It captures horrific living situations, from unsuspecting roommates. The title says it all: Roommates with malevolent and sometimes violent intentions turn the lives of their unsuspecting victims into real-life nightmares. This is an unsettling true story chronicle of four stories interwoven by their individual tales of horrific menace roommates.
An overall theme of the main characters in the film is the pursuit of Money and Power. All the perpetrators often covered up their true selves in an Auror of vulnerable and approachable personalities. One fact is they all really did have The Audacity.
Blumhouse production did a great job really dissecting these personalities. In each story, the essence of the leading role, usually the crime wrongdoer, is broken down piece by piece taking us along the journey with the Victim. As it is in any film you kind of know where it is going. This docu-series is the same way however the build-up is intriguing, chilling and will take you along the strings.
In the beginning, you are put into the position where you know it is all about to hit the fan. Being weaved into the story, slowly you will find yourself surprised and bewildered. One character, Dorothy Punete, From the first story made herself seem much older than she really was, and she sold the look.
In the 80s, no one could have suspected a sweet old lady to be a serial killer. K. C Joy puts on the best show when being interviewed by the Police, where he speaks broken English as if to stir up pity from the authorities. It goes on and on.
According to an earlier mentioned study, by Pew, the number of people living with roommates is on the rise. Television shows like the Big Bang Theory and New girl portray shared living situations as a bubble, fun, constant sleepover thing. As we all know that is not how it goes.
Having a roommate can be great, It can help save money, and who doesn’t want to save extra cash. However, time and efforts to do background checks must be done, they are ever more so important. I had a roommate once and it was in an interesting situation, nothing bad happened but I ended up leaving for various reasons.
As I wrote this article I found many websites that help find people. Obviously start with google, identifying if there are any social Media Pages belonging to the person in question. To go deeper, try a Phone number search. I know this one because it was often used on CatFish, the TV show. Thank you Catfish!.
SIDENOTE: The website actually worked, I tried it to look up my friend. According to the site, it is mostly used to identify scammers.
I want to mention how this could not have come at a better time. The age of the internet has made us more susceptible to fallacies. Crazy people have really taken advantage of this, it needs to stop. In 2 out of the 3 stories, the individuals met on the internet first.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RED FLAG GIPH <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Granted, the number of people who are living with roommates who are not family members is relatively low (around 18%). Still, a lesson should be learnt from the film, take advantage of the Age of Information. Do your research, check the history of anyone before deciding to meet with anyone. Even when that fails, look out for the red flags and do not ignore them. Do not ignore it, If someone makes you feel like you’re being Violated, don’t put off your instincts.
