Green Room

Director - Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Murder Party)
Starring - Anton Yelchin (Odd Thomas, Fright Night), Alia Shawkat (Pee Wee's Big Holiday, Drunk History), and Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders, Skins)
Release Date - 2015
Genre - Horror/Crime
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     This year has been the absolute worst for deaths among celebrities.  We have lost so many iconic and legendary actors.  This year we lost Angus Scrimm (Phantasm, Subspecies), Alan Rickman (Harry Potter, GalaxyQuest), Jerry Doyle (Babylon 5), Ron Lester (Varsity Blues, Not Another Teen Movie), Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond), George Kennedy (Naked Gun, Creepshow 2), Dan Haggerty (Elves, Grizzly Adams), and Anton Yelchin. This is just a few of the amazing actors and actresses that left us this year.  Of all those amazing people that passed away, only one left tears in my eyes.  Anton Yelchin is an actor I had been keeping an eye on for a few years now after I saw him in the Fright Night remake.  Since then I had been looking for any movie of his to check out.  He was one hell of an actor with a big career ahead of him.  Sadly, he was taken from us by a freak accident involving his Jeep.  After his death the horror hit Green Room, one his last performances, was released on blu.  I heard a lot of amazing things about this film so I reached out and requested a copy to review.  Thanks guys for letting me check this one out!

     The film follows a punk band who goes on a road trip so they could be interviewed for a college radio station.  When they arrive they learn that the interviewer lost his broadcasting license and their trip was a bust.  The guy apologizes and offers to make things right by telling them about a paying gig.  They need the cash and head out to the venue when they learn that they will be playing for neo-nazis and skinheads.  They do the show like normal and collect their cash in hopes of making a hasty retreat but one of them forgets his cell phone and goes back to retrieve it where he witnesses a murder.  Now the band is locked in a room with a young girl, a dead body, and a racist fuck wielding a gun.  They soon take the goon but the neo-nazi's leader (Patrick Stewart) arrives to take control of the situation.  He lies and tells them the police is on the way and sets in motion a plan to kill them all as to leave no witnesses.  What he doesn't plan on is these punks fighting back.

     Once in a while a movie is released that people just can't stop talking about.  In the last decade of so we saw the release of so many films that people could not keep off their tongues.  We had August Underground, Serbian Film. Human Centipede, Pieces of Talent, Cross Bearer, and so many more.  Some were just as entertaining as I was lead to believe but few lived up to the hype.  Green Room did.  Green Room was everything I was told it would be and more.  It was an experience to say the least.  The acting in this one is fantastic and easily one of the best acted films I have seen all year.  Patrick Stewart is chilling as the leader of the skinheads.  He's cold, calculating, and down right diabolical.  This is a role I'm not used to seeing him in but I fucking loved it.  Alia Shawkat was great as well.  I had seen her in several films before and she is a very strong female and should be cast accordingly.  She was great but her character was short lived.  Next is Anton Yelchin who absolutely killed it.  His character was not as the trailer painted it.  However, he was still phenomenal and pulled in a wide range of emotions.  This was the mark of a true actor and it's a travesty that he is no longer with us.  The story for this one caught me off guard somewhat.  The punks fighting off an army of skinheads was very unexpected but completely makes sense.  The film is crime based but quickly turns horror and I love the medley.  The story honestly hits all at once after several slow scenes that establish the characters but once the action starts it never lets up.  That is rare among a crime/horror hybrid.  Most focus on one aspect or the other but this film puts both genres in the blender which results in one powerful film.  Finally, if you are looking for deaths then look no further.  The film has several on screen deaths and a few others that take place off screen.  The kills that we get on screen are fucking brutal and in your face.  We get a belly being slit open by a box cutter and we get a few gun shot wounds to the face.  The effects for these kills are top notch which makes them that more impressive.  The kills we get off screen would have been just as fun but we have those ripped from us.  Most of them were dog kills that sound brutal but we never get to see.  Overall, Green Room is the quintessential horror film of 2016.  The film is bloody, clever, and damn entertaining.  Check this one out!