Title – Green Room (2015)

Director – Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin)

Cast – Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Macon Blair, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner

Plot – Struggling hard-core band The Ain’t Rights find themselves in a battle of life and death after a member of the band witnesses a murder scene after a gig in a Neo-Nazi  hangout.

“Whatever happens, this won’t end well”

Review by Eddie on 29/08/2016

After the grungy indie success of his low budget revenge thriller Blue Ruin, director Jeremy Saulnier all of a sudden found himself at a new level of attention paid to his future works and for those that found the often bloodthirsty and smartly cool Blue Ruin a trip to remember, then the free flowing blood bath that is Green Room will be one of their years favourite indie experiences.

Recruiting big game stars like the late Anton Yelchin (once more showcasing the talent that will sadly now be never fully met), Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart (like you’ve never seen Captain Picard before) as well as the return of Blue Ruin’s breakout star Macon Blair, Saulnier finds himself with a slightly bigger playground to enact proceedings on, even if Green Room’s action largely takes place within the graffiti clad walls of the neo-Nazi filled confines of the hell like bar our band The Ain’t Rights are fortunate (unfortunate) enough to play at.

Green Room won’t be a great experience for those that find the confines of a small room something unappealing as the tight surrounds of Green Room’s brutal, shocking and not infrequent violence (and various uses of duct tape) is both its greatest uniqueness and biggest downfall as no matter how many acts of violence and brutality that Saulnier can conjure up, Green Room does at times struggle to maintain its momentum and a rather unsatisfactory climax makes Green Room’s exhausting experience a destination not fully worth the trip.

There’s good work done by Saulnier’s acting group and the films initial set-up is one of intrigue but as the film progresses and The Ain’t Rights are locked away in the titular green room, decisions get dumber, events get more far-fetched and things go a little pear shaped as Saulnier’s ideas seem too often revert back to grizzly scenes of machete led, dog bitten or shotgun infused blood splattering and where films like David Fincher’s Panic Room make good and wise decisions with their small surrounds, Green Room falls down in this area as the run time draws on.

Filled with moments of brilliance and some memorable turns from its young and older cast members, Green Room offers up much to like but equal amounts of frustrations as many films of this ilk do when it comes to character decisions and turns of events but one thing is for sure, Saulnier is a filmmaker to watch and its likely a big budgeted horror/thriller awaits his next turn which could hopefully be the fully rounded experience he looks likely to deliver very soon.

3 box cutters out of 5