Green Room

After Blue Ruin, this is a step back, even if we approach Green Room as an old-school, low-budget slasher flick (with well-thought-out camerawork instead of an attempt at raw docurealism, “handmade” gore effects instead of CGI) rather than as a metaphorical commentary on a society divided into ultra-far-right psychopaths and left-wing anarchists. Green Room doesn’t offer the slow build-up of suspense found in Saulnier’s previous film. Indeed, there is none of that in this film, which generally feels like someone just made it up as they went along. There is nothing here to give rise to suspense. The mechanical stringing together of attacks and counter-attacks is preceded by a rushed exposition, during which we don’t learn enough about the protagonists; we don’t even remember their names, let alone take an interest in them and later fear for them. Whereas in Blue Ruin the minimisation of psychological depiction of the characters and the concealment of certain information served to give the story a degree of suspense, here those aspects are a manifestation of helplessness in fulfilling a deceptively simple concept. The ensuing orgy of violence, whose justification is not in any way problematised as it was in Blue Ruin, may get your blood up a few times (see the blatantly shocking abdominal slashing), but it fails to make an emotional impact. Besides that, the characters on both sides of the solid door too frequently behave like idiots to be a welcome enhancement of the “conquest” formula as we know it from Rio Bravo or its remake, Assault on Precinct 13. Mistakes with deadly consequences are made by both civilians and “soldiers”, thus blurring the differences between the two groups, and Pat’s story lacks the intended resonance in furthering the narrative. The most unfortunate thing is that the characters are unable to use their advantages, whether that involves a loaded gun or numerical superiority, basically just so that the runtime can be artificially stretched out to an hour and a half. If they made more reasonable decisions, the film would probably have been shorter, but also significantly more boisterous. All of the rawness is diminished by the retarded (and mind-numbing) dialogue that tries unsuccessfully to give the impression that, all things considered, it’s not only about who kills whom first. The characters are forced to choose complicated solutions (why use guns and an army when I can send two guys in with pocket knives) just so that they can die slowly and more painfully. As a result, Green Room is neither an intoxicatingly simple genre flick nor “something more”. 45% (07/11/2016)

Nazi punks fuck off. It kept me on my feet like a pit bull and tightened its grip at the end. It follows a single logic - the logic of escalating tension. I turn off the logic circuits - this film is everything I expect from a slasher. Great characters, atmospheric environment, a smoothed-out villain and intense "game" finale. Brilliant point. I enjoy every detail. DIY garage pleasure with a properly turned-up amp. Probably the best Yelchin role ever. (01/06/2017)

The most surprising aspect of Green Room is the non-filmic aspect consisting in the fact that it polarises the audience at all. One would expect that people would simply enjoy a flick that serves up an absorbing survival story in exchange for a drop of suspension of disbelief. Green Room is neither a realistic drama nor an ambitious revision of genre rules, but rather an ingeniously and not quite traditionally constructed genre film. Like Wolf Creek, for example, it takes its time initiating the confrontation. When it comes this time, genre excess does not emerge, but rather realism continues to be applied within the boundaries of the genre. From that, it is apparent that the film does not play completely according to formulas or, said more precisely, that it does not develop the situation predictably through clichés, but spontaneously through the characters and the playing out of the claustrophobic situation. Thanks to that, the overarching survival stand-off narrative gets some fresh blood in its veins. The gradual alternation of attempts to survive and the revelation of facts that are unknown to both the viewer and the characters keeps the tension building. Thanks to the fact that the filmmakers stay grounded in terms of eye-catching genre elements (from overwrought heroism and pompous negativity to superficial attractions), the traditional alienation of the film does not bring up any questions about what will happen next or how it will turn out, and the impulsively behaving characters only carry the viewer onward to the next unconventionally constructed scene. But apparently not for everyone. Then the question is, why? Because today’s film fans have become so enamoured with overly sophisticated blockbusters and high-quality TV that they cannot enjoy a precise, non-camp genre spectacle that is not exceedingly wise, but is just inconspicuously clever? (08/08/2016)

On the one hand, a number of promising ideas that enrich the film as a slasher (the ugly setting and the whole community of skinhead freaks, the murderous slaughterhouse as a means of getting rid of witnesses, the isolation of the titular room), on the other hand, a completely sloppy approach to most of the characters, whom we don't care about, not very interesting direction and not much of a script to speak of – I liked the initial psychological pressure and unpredictability, too bad it turned into a mechanically repetitive parade in a closed building where at times logic gets lost. But I still had a good time, the violence was impressive, the pace remained at a decent level and of course Patrick Stewart in an unconventional villain role was a delight. Inoffensively watchable, nothing more, nothing less. (09/17/2018)

"Nazi Punks Fuck Off!!!" isn't just the world famous Dead Kennedys hit song that is featured here, but basically the genius of the entire Green Room. And not only thematically, but also in terms of form. Listening to this song, many people think of a screaming punk animal, sizzling and scratching around in a darkened room smelling of sweat, beer, and tobacco. The strings wail under the incessant barrage of beats, and the drums grow audibly farther away from their original form with each beat. Green Room tries to convey the same feeling to the viewer, but mainly through the visuals. Surprisingly, it's not punk-aggressive and stylized. On the contrary, it perfectly evokes the atmosphere of the humid gloom of the early evening and the early morning, thus placing the film's setting somehow "anywhere" and thereby enhancing the experience. The resulting transformation into the home invasion sub-genre before the halfway point of the film may disappoint some a little, as the film returns to genre from something that up to this point has developed quite atypically, but this brings to the surface perhaps the most surprising aspect of the film, which is the terrific script. Not in that it somehow uniquely arranges the plot and creates unexpected payoffs, but in how well the characters and situations can be written. The individual scenes no few surprises, both in terms of the body count and the behavior of the supporting characters. The nature of the danger here is uncomfortably real, however demonic it may seem in places (the first encounter with the red laces), which is made more effective in the scenes of individual deaths or, for example, in the perversely moving finale with the dog. So, although the film lures us in with the promise of daring trash where punks mow down Nazis, in reality people are killing other people here, and the filmmakers don't try to evoke our empathy, as they usually do with home invasion, by making the actors decent people with jobs and kids, but by including all sorts of details in the setting or the characters' behavior in each scene. Which helps us to get completely into the film and imagine ourselves in the given situation. It's a shame that a few scenes are so dark that you can't make out who's who, otherwise I'd go for five. I'm still terribly cheerful about the existence of this film, though. (07/03/2016)

Green Room doesn't necessarily bring anything new in terms of survival, it actually relies on the classics, but it does so in an incredibly good way. It's mainly because there's an atmosphere here that can really make you squirm and make you look away rather than at what's going on. Not many recent horror films can do that. This one handles it with ease. (10/24/2016)