Green Room (2016)

Review

95min

Genre:      Horror, Thriller

Director:   Jeremy Saulnier

Cast:        Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart…and more

Writer:     Jeremy Saulnier

-Synopsis-

A young underground punk band’s gig at a remote rural Oregon Roadhouse turns into a brutal nightmare after they witness a murder; hunted by the club’s skinhead patrons and their ruthless leader, our “heroes” struggle for survival as a diabolical plan evolves.

In what he has dubbed the third of his “cluster fuck” trilogy; writer/director Jeremy Saulnier applies his vision of a punk rock ethos to an ultra-violent slaughterhouse horror/thriller with a quintessential “wrong place at the wrong time” narrative, a genre indie loved by both critics and audiences.

But this is one of those rare situations where we couldn’t disagree more with either, ‘Green Room’  is a tedious and uninspired addition to a sub-genre of acquired taste, which perfectly reflects the pale shadow of punk rock that’s been appropriated and kept alive by a new generation.

Taking a little from any number of gore films of the past few decades, and a lot from John Carpenter’s survival/standoff exploitation classic ‘Assault on Precinct 13’, Saulnier crafts a moderately creative murder-fest with faux attitude and an uneven tempo that gets unnecessarily broken up by returns to the club’s infamous “green room”,  not to mention a cringeworthy paintballing monologue…  among other things.

‘Green Room’ is really just a low-fat version of what it’s trying to be; from a surprising lack of tension or shock value, to a distinct lack of graphic violence apart from a couple of “creative” uses for box-cutters, this feels like a glorified violent action flick that barely does enough to earn its 18 rating.

We would think that fans of the sub-genre would be disappointed and non-fans would think it too violent, either way we can’t see how anyone would remain engaged after the first few people are creatively dispatched, or care about the fate of these caricatures of unlikeable people.

The leads that make up our “anti-hero” punkers deliver adequate performances at best, while apart from one character, the skinhead contingent are about as convincing or intimidating as Harry Hill on a night out. Even the great Patrick Stewart’s dramatic abilities are stifled in his turn as the cold-blooded and subdued club owner and cult leader.

For us, ‘Green Room’ doesn’t reflect an ethos of uncompromising individuality and artistic integrity, but exploits it for the purposes of a moderately entertaining and uninspired indie thriller. This is no punk horror, but rather a mashup of exploitation film elements which amounts to a mildly gripping but instantly forgettable cinema-going experience.

The Bottom Line…

Not gory enough for those who like “slaughterhouse” horror and too graphic for those who don’t, ‘Green Room’  builds tension reasonably well but keeps squandering it while providing moderate shock value, a touch of dark humour and mild entertainment… which is forgotten as soon as you leave the cinema.

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Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

A small group of people, holed up in a soon-to-be decommissioned police station, struggle for survival as they defend themselves from a violent street gang hell-bent on revenge in this classic exploitation thriller from John Carpenter.

Directed by John Carpenter and starring Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston and Laurie Zimmer among others.

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