Green Room: Movie Review

The new horror-thriller, “Green Room” from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (“Blue Ruin”), is dark, brutal, and absolutely brilliant. Not all the talent is behind the camera, as the film stars Patrick Stewart, Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, and Imogen Poots.

Set in the backwoods of Oregon, a broke punk-rock group called “The Ain’t Rights”, book a last minute gig at a run-down club, occupied mostly by white-supremacists. They are not thrilled about the audience they are performing to, but having no gas, food, or money and living in their van makes it hard for them to pass up the $300 payout.

The band consists of Pat (Yelchin), Reece (Joe Cole), Sam (Alia Shawkat), and Tiger (Callum Turner). Their set goes off without a hitch, but when it’s time for them to leave the venue, Pat witnesses the murder of a young girl and now the club owner, Darcy (Stewart) can’t let the band leave the club alive. The victim’s friend Amber (Imogen Poots) is also an unlucky witness to the crime.

Saulnier keeps things moving along quite nicely and the brutality of the deaths in “Green Room” can be quite tough to take. Even for the hardcore horror fans like myself. We see trained dogs rip out the throats of victims and an out-of-nowhere shotgun blast to the face. When the kills come, they come like rapid-fire. I have seen Stewart play all types of characters but have never seen him play one like this and boy is he good. “Green Room” is easily one of the best thrillers I have seen this year so far and a must see for genre fans.

By: Marc Ferman