Filmed in 1992 and directed by Babette Schroeder, the film is a textbook for small-budget narrative films. Although the film did not disclose the cost, its shooting budget was not high in terms of the special effects of the film scene and the cast.
Look for condominium sharers
The film's protagonist is Alison, played by Bridget Fonda, an aspiring young professional woman. Her career as a software designer is thriving. Alison lives in a luxury apartment in New York that limits rent increases and is already engaged to her handsome boyfriend, Sam. But their wedding was not all smooth sailing, and then the problem occurred.
First, Alison found Sam carrying her back to continue his dealings with his ex-wife, and then the two broke up. Because the rent for the apartment was too high, Alison advertised for a "single white woman" (the film's original English name: Single White Female) to share the apartment with her. She eventually chooses a girl named Hydra (Jennifer Jason) (who later discovers that Hydra is not her real name).
Alison was very happy with Khedra, a tenant, who began to behave like a shy, quiet girl, but it didn't take long for her to reveal a different personality: she became an obsessive fan of Alison, imitating not only her dress, but also her hairstyle and hair coloring. As Alison reconciles with her repentant boyfriend Sam, Della is immediately filled with blame for her roommate. A series of "accidents" ensued.
From "Fatal Temptation" and "The Hand That Shakes the Cradle"
In a way, the genre of "Deadly Temptation" originated in 1987, in which a happily married New York lawyer spends a sexually charged weekend with a professional woman while his wife and children are out of town. But later, the female lover refused to let go of the lawyer. She will stop at nothing to make him his own man.
How far can she go to achieve this?
Then another example emerged, and that was the film Shaking the Cradle's Hand, which was shot in 1992 and was about a family hiring a nanny to look after a newborn child. But they didn't know that the nanny had just lost her unborn child. The nanny, bent on replacing the family's wife and mother, orchestrated a series of "accidents".
Obviously, the success of a film will attract a batch of films that imitate the original work until the original story concept is repeatedly exhausted. The above plot routine is the so-called "disturber female film". "Shadow Crazy Flowers" is an excellent example of this classification. However, if "Crazy Flowers" is equated with "Fatal Temptation" and "The Hand That Shakes the Cradle", it seems that this movie is somewhat underestimated. The film has more characteristics and is worth our study.
Explore human dependence
What is the most core part of the movie "Stacked Shadows", in fact, it is not difficult for careful viewers to find that the real theme that director Schroeder wants to show is human dependence. From a co-tenant to a fan, in the transformation of the identity of the two, explore the dependence of people.
To explore this theme, he focused on the relationship between two very different young New York women. Hedra is shy and shy, Alison is generous and bold; Khdra is plain-looking, Alison is beautiful and charming; Hedra is sullen, Alison is lively and happy. But if Alison is romantically naïve, Khedra contains a certain unforgiving reality. Alison has never lived alone, unaware of how fragile her sense of self is and needs someone else, aka boyfriend or Hedra, to boost her self-belief.
As the film continues, we later discover that Hedra is actually a survivor of twin sisters and prefers to be Alison's close friend. She spent her life searching for the "other half" lost by death, living in the shadow of the "other half". Soon, Alison and Hydra were moving like fully meshed parts of a machine. They protect each other, communicate the past, fantasize about the future, and share each other's clothes, perfumes, and tastes of movies.
This is actually in line with Khdra's value of "looking for dependence", and it is clear that Hedra Kung Fu pays off, and she quickly finds the "part" that suits her best.
A fan full of "murderous"
Hedra followed her like Alison's fans. Extreme fans who are obsessed with some celebrity idols feel and survive through their own objects of worship. If the idol succeeds, they dance, and if the idol fails, they will also have a nervous breakdown. These fans have such a strong sense of identification with their idols that they believe that the star idols love them and need them to rescue them.
What is the cost of this phenomenon? Those star idols must not live up to the expectations of fans.
So, when Alison changed her mind and reconciled with her boyfriend, Hedra immediately became angry and murderous at her. Seeing this, it is not difficult to find that Hydra is not a loyal "fan", in a way, Alison is like a "beautiful tool", she must live as Hydra likes, and this image if there is a deviation from the fantasy, this "loyal" fan absolutely can not accept. This is obviously a kind of morbid worship, but also a ridiculous "star chasing".
epilogue:
So, does this "murderous" fan really exist in the movie?
Many singers or movie stars in all regions of the world pay heavily for bodyguards for personal safety. The reason for this is because they attract a large number of fans, some of whom are obviously deranged, and there is also the pathological "worship" of Khdra. In some cases, just because a fan feels abandoned by the star he admires, he will impulsively hurt the idol he admires, because the fan cannot accept the deviation of this fantasy from reality, which is the tragedy suffered by John Lennon of the American Beatles.