Green Room

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)

After a long time, a horror film in a more brutal package. It starts off slower, but from the 40 minute mark it becomes a decent rough ride of solid gore (although there could have been a bit more), and the fighting dogs, the Nazis, the punk music, the ugly setting are all welcome. It's not a pretty watch, but the pacing is brisk, and Green Room is definitely one of the better ones this year. 75% (07/01/2016)

A pretty solid bloodbath that I somehow managed to overlook for two years, but I finally made time for it. The rating on this site must be for a different film because the percentage it received is simply undeserved for a movie that’s almost perfectly minimalist. It had a small budget, long dialogues, and little action, yet you’ll still thoroughly enjoy the film. I liked the unconventional setting where the film took place, as you don’t often see this type of film centered around such an unsympathetic group of people. The mostly unknown actors (with two obvious exceptions) performed incredibly well, making every step believable, and you could easily imagine reacting the same way. The story was soaked in a thick atmosphere that sent chills down your spine. In the most tense moments, the creators handled things well and didn’t "kill" the film with some dumb mistake—they managed to maintain the tension. I got my share of grittier and bloodier scenes, and the epic finale was the cherry on top. What kept it from a perfect score was the imbalance between action and dialogue, which were heavily disproportionate. I give it 83%. (08/25/2017)