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Green Room (2016), R, ★★★1/2

What the hell is going on in this room?
I was very skeptical going into this movie because of a few things: One: A movie with the word, "green", could potentially have the unfortunate fate of being a bad movie: Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Green Inferno, etc. But, there have been a few strong movies with it in the title: Green Zone and The Green Mile. Another thing was I questioned about combining a rock band group struggling to have their ends meet with the horror genre and I thought, saying to myself, "It's an intriguing idea." Even though the movie lacks some context as to why they are being held hostage in the green room, the movie's performances and layers of quiet suspense takes the movie to a level of frightened horror that is both complex and grisly. I am not a big fan of slaughterhouse movies but this movie got my attention.

Four friends - Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole) and Tiger (Callum Turner) - are part of punk rock band trying to get some gigs lined up to get some money because all they have is their music, talents and van but unfortunately, it is not enough. Once they got the gig after an interview, they play at a neo-Nazi venue in which they do not get a friendly reception based on the title of their tunes which insults their culture.

After the show, the band gets their money and are about to head out. Meanwhile, Sam forgot her phone charger and Pat goes to get it in the room. But, he witnesses Werm (Brent Werzner) and Amber (Imogen Poots) standing over Amber's friend's dead body. Two bouncers, Big Justin (Eric Edelstein) and Gabe (Macon Blair) force the band into the room while their phones get taken away. The club's owner, Darcy (Patrick Stewart), arrives and says that the band has to be dealt with as the band tries to come up with some plans on how to get out of the situation and get out of the room.

Professor X and his crew of American History X members.
I do not dare spoil anything here but all I can say is that this is a well-processed movie that takes its time for the characters to develop in a short time-span in about 90 minutes. Even though the characters are not intelligent, they are not a boring crowd and they are innocent bystanders who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when the members of the band make stupid mistakes, they suffer the consequences and the results make you want to either vomit or avert your eyes. Nevertheless, this is a straight horror genre movie that has thrills and some interest from beginning to end.

Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole and Callum Turner all look like they belong in a struggling punk rock band and they could have another indie film in there. But, they all give solid performances. Imogen Poots is solid with a bad haircut as she has this no-nonsense, tough attitude. But, the movie belongs to the great Patrick Stewart in a supporting role that is quietly haunting and darkly funny that you would not dare want to mess with him or else his crew will kill you in a very grisly way. It is a departure from his usual heroic roles but it is one of the most interesting performances of the year.

My only criticisms are that there is no rooting interest for any of the characters because they do not have as much emotional range in their background. They are confused idiots in the punk rock band group who are stuck in a green room. Even though most of the horror cliches are crafted well in a game of cat-and-mouse, them splitting up is a cliche that ends up a bit more ludicrous than suspenseful. Nevertheless, director Jeremy Saulnier, who made the underrated Blue Ruin, is going to spark a lot of people's interest if he continues to craft more well-made grisly productions of a story. I just hope we get intelligent characters in the next movie. But, this is a horror indie film that will get you to avert your eyes at a few parts but get you to be hooked into the claustrophobic world of a messed-up situation.

***1/2


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