The movie Green Room is an unsettling suspense/horror film that’s just now available for digital rental. This is an utterly engrossing film about a down-on-their-luck punk band on the last legs of their failing tour. They take a gig at a seedy neo-nazi skinhead roadhouse just to earn enough cash to get further down the road where they witness something they shouldn’t. Now trapped in the venue’s green room, they have to survive a tense negotiation and then a violent siege. The skinheads, lead by a coldly calculating Patrick Stewart, need them out so they can stage their deaths in the woods without leaving evidence behind.
What makes this movie so effective is that it plays everything with minimal melodrama and with a sense of being there. When people talk through a closed door, they are muffled and indistinct. When people talk about their murderous plans, its matter-of-fact. When someone is wounded or killed, it happens on screen and without quick cuts, musical stings, or any of the usual film tricks. It just happens. Bluntly. Directly. Your brain takes a few seconds to adjust to what you just saw and that makes it even more horrific. The matter-of-factness is stunning and ugly and amazing and unlike anything I can recall.
Obviously this film isn’t for everyone but I was engrossed and engaged… and disturbed and bothered. The movie gets under your skin and makes it crawl… yet there’s something also so coldly rational about it at the same time. The pacing won’t appeal to everyone, I imagine.
Much has been made of Patrick Stewart and he is coldly bluntly evil without going overboard at any point. It’s a very good performance. It’s a unique villain performance for him and he bring none of his theatrical background to it. Whatever urge he might have had to play a big or Shakespearean villain is left behind. It’s almost an ego-less performance.
I highly recommend this movie to those who want a good suspense/horror film. This is not like every other movie out there – it doesn’t hold your hand or telegraph what’s happening and that makes it hard for me to decide who to recommend it to. It’s unflinching, dark, and mean without being Hollywood schlock.
Score: 88