Green Room (2015)

Very few films are effectively unsettling, creating a sense of dread that permeates an entire film's aura and leaves the audience in a state of almost unending suspense. Green Room, the latest writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (whose breakout film Blue Ruin was a modest success a few years ago), is such a film, and whether or not you are the type of audience for that will influence how you feel about the film.

A 4-piece punk rock band, who are so broke they siphon gas just to make it to their next gig, end up at a skinhead bar in Southern Oregon for a scheduled gig. There, one of the members, Pat (Anton Yelchin), witnesses a brutal murder and the group ends up stuck in the venue's green room, fighting against the owner Darcy (Patrick Stewart) and his gang of Neo-Nazis.

It's an effectively simple set-up to a 90-minute thrill ride that increases the stakes ever more as our characters are locked away, scrambling to figure a way out of their situation. Set almost entirely within the same bar, the film makes great use of limited space, and finds fun ways to expand on the claustrophobic environment as the victims find a way to escape.

The cast is all fantastic, including Imogen Poots as a fellow prisoner, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner as the other members of the band. Yelchin is fine as the lead, and Stewart is fantastic as always as the main villain, the man who has a shrewd plan for covering up the crime and framing the unwitting band in the process.

Like Saulnier's previous film, Blue Ruin, the film is a fine example of suspense ratcheted up. Only the director's third feature, this is the sign of an assured hand, one who knows how to slowly move the pieces along and keep an audience engaged. There is not much wasted time in this film, as it propels along with an urgent dread.

And while I admire Saulnier's talents, I didn't necessarily enjoy the film all that much. There are a few brutal moments that made my entire audience let out groans and shouts of horror, and while the moments are few and far between, they certainly make an impression. The movie itself is a rather depressing affair, and if you were hoping for any element of fun, there is none to be found here.

And plenty of people will flock to see this movie and enjoy it for those reasons. And I applaud any director that can effect my mood and create that sense of dread that never lets up. But this is a movie I would recommend cautiously. If you like suspense, and don't mind brutal violence, then you'll love this movie. For everyone else, they'll wonder if the director is this intense in real life, and who did what to cause him to want to make such dark, brutal tales.