Holy shit. Just when you think you’ve had enough, along comes Green Room, an exciting, unpredictable and deliciously gory thriller about rock band members who find themselves in a load of trouble when they see something they shouldn’t—while performing for a bunch of Neo-Nazis led by none other than Patrick-Professor-Fucking-X-Stewart.
Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots deliver great, gritty and offbeat performances in the flick, the second small-scale, out-of-left-field thriller worth seeing this year (the other being 10 Cloverfield Lane, and no, this one doesn’t have an out-of-right-field ending). But whereas 10 Cloverfield Lane relied on unsettling, not-sure-what-is-happening-but-I-know-it’s-not-good tension, Green Room prefers to wear its intentions on its cut-off sleeve: the protagonists are stuck in a room surrounded by bad people who are going to do very bad things, and when they do those bad things, they do them in very bad, bad ways.
For a while, writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) holds back, letting the movie progress at a fast but even-keeled pace. The first half is largely build up as he sets the stage, but then, suddenly, Green Room ratchets to an entirely different level you didn’t think it was capable of and shit hits the fan. The editing is superb—fast but never frenetic, impatient but always controlled—and really elevates the movie among other flicks in the genre.
As good guys and bad guys bite the bullet in brutal, gory fashion, Green Room‘s entertainment factor hits crescendo, and it really never lets up until the end credits roll. The movie is a master stroke of suspense, excitement and bloody goodness.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.