Green Room (2015) – Review

 

Green Room is a movie that i have been meaning to watch for awhile and have just not got around to doing so, until now and as glad as I am that I watched it finally, in some way I wish I hadn’t, not because its bad, but because I can never watch “Star Trek- The Next Generation” again without flashbacks to this gorefest.

The movie is centered around a underground punk band “The Ain’t Rights” scrounging for a gig after being let down by their latest booking, the band gets a slot at a backwoods country bar/club in Oregon that is owned by Darcy Banker (Patrick Stewart) who happens to be a drug manufacturing Neo-Nazi and uses the bar/club as a headquarters for his Neo-Nazi clan.
Green Room has early moments of good funnies that had me chuckling lightly with snide comments and punk/alt music references that came across as genuine banter, but that quickly changes as the band realises just how Alt-Right the people at this bar/club really are.
After a shaky set the band return back to the “green room” to find their gear outside in the hallway

and proceed to pack up and leave, but one of the members Sam (Alia Shawkat) forgets her phone that she left in the room, from there the movie steadily becomes a hostage situation and murder fest, though it takes a good little while for anything to get intense, when it starts getting intense it gets INTENSE! .

There are scenes of gore that rival some of the biggest budgets in the industry and few moments of tension that really does get you excited only to rip your throat out without warning.
This movie has a great way of making you feel like there is hope and then taking that hope and blasting it point blank with a 12 gauge shotgun.

Green Room is as artsy as a horror/thriller can come as a small budget flick and there are moments of deep human analysis inside of the hour and a half’s worth of blood and violence. The story takes awhile to get underway but its not boring, you learn a little about the group (not enough) in the time it takes to really get going and as for the visuals, they are great, in fact a lot of the story early on is picked up more by what you see rather than actual dialogue.

As much as this film does good, it certainly feels as though it is missing something, it might be that I didn’t really give a shit about the charactors as you are just thrown these people and thats that, or maybe its because the film has Patrick Stewart as a calm and calculated Alt-Right leader (which to his credit he pulls of scaringly good) that has forever tarnished his presence in any Star Trek of old, whatever it is, it just feels as though there could have been a bit more depth.
When I heard about this film and seen the trailer for it, I got excited, I enjoy a horror/thriller, but after watching it i felt that it really fits into an artsy/ gore movie more, being that you dont really care much for the leads so you dont really fear their saftey and will them along nor do you really care about the antagonists either and to be perfectly honest, the most fleshed out character (in my opinion) is Gabe (Macon Blair) who happens to be a bad/good guy (more bad than good).

Overall I enjoyed the ride, the pacing was adequate early on and then goes 100kph in an instant, the visuals are really really nice and the gore is disgustingly brilliant, my only complaint and it is a very minor complaint, but I feel that I would like to have cared a little more about the leads, I just didn’t, but I guess that allows you to feel less annoyed when the shit hits the fan.

Would I watch it again?. Yea, I would, its worth it, I enjoyed it.
If you don’t like gore then maybe Green Room isn’t a good idea, also if you like dogs.. Might be an idea to skip this one.

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier

Anton Yelchin as Pat, the bassist of the Ain’t Rights
Imogen Poots as Amber
Alia Shawkat as Sam, the guitarist of the Ain’t Rights
Joe Cole as Reece, the drummer of the Ain’t Rights
Callum Turner as Tiger, the singer of the Ain’t Rights
Patrick Stewart as Darcy Banker, the leader of the skinheads
Macon Blair as Gabe, a skinhead and club employee
Mark Webber as Daniel, a skinhead and Tad’s cousin.
Kai Lennox as Clark, a skinhead and attack dog trainer
Eric Edelstein as Big Justin, a skinhead bouncer
David W. Thompson as Tad,
Brent Werzner as Werm, a member of Cowcatcher
Taylor Tunes as Emily, a female skinhead and Amber’s friend
Samuel Summer as Jonathan, a skinhead
Mason Knight as Kyle, a skinhead
Colton Ruscheinsky as Alan, a skinhead
Jacob Kasch as the bartender

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