Review: Green Room

"We won't all live, but maybe we won't all die," one character says in the pulse-pounding horror film, Green Room, which boasts an unlikely but cracking set-up.

The Ain't Rights are a hardcore punk band comprised of singer Tiger (Callum Turner), guitarist Sam (Alia Shawkat), bassist Pat (Anton Yelchin), and drummer Reece (Joe Cole). Siphoning gas from cars on the road, they're not exactly selling out arenas so when their next gig falls through and only nets them six dollars apiece, they agree to play for a venue that will pay them 350 dollars. The venue is mostly "boots and braces," says the local radio host who secured the gig for them. When they arrive at the location, they realise that they'll be playing for a bar room of neo-Nazi skinheads. No need to worry, assures the venue manager Gabe (Macon Blair), who escorts them to the dressing room that provides the film with its title.

Despite initial tension between the punks and the skinheads - not exactly helped by the Ain't Rights kicking off their show with a cover of the Dead Kennedys' "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" - the gig goes relatively well and the band are on their way back to their van when Pat goes back to the dressing room to retrieve Sam's cell phone. He happens upon a disturbing scene: a woman on the floor, a knife in her head, killed by a member of one of the headlining acts. The Ain't Rights make to leave, but Gabe confiscates their cell phones, tells them to stay put while he calls the cops, and leaves them in the green room with Amber (Imogen Poots), one of the club's regulars and the dead woman's friend, and Big Justin (Eric Edelstein), who is pointing a loaded gun at all of them.

Cops are called but diverted by Darcy (Patrick Stewart), the club's owner, who quickly gathers his troops to eradicate all traces of the murder. When his smooth talk doesn't work on the band members, he very calmly tells them that it won't end well. Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier wholly avoids training his camera on Stewart's face as he negotiates with Pat and the other band members through the locked door, and it's a wise move. Stewart's voice is velvet with malice and its disembodiment emphasises how the Ain't Rights and Amber are dealing with a force that may be beyond their control.

Bodies are hacked, limbs are mutilated, throats are ripped yet for all the film's graphic gore, there's something surprisingly straightforward, unfussy and elemental about the way it's presented which makes it all the more horrific. Though Saulnier doesn't flesh out any of his characters, he is smart enough not to make them mere bodies to be fed through the narrative grinder. None of these characters' actions could be described as dumb or misguided - they're trapped, they're fighting for survival, and sometimes the only way to do that is to make a run for it and hope you don't get slashed or shot in the process.

Green Room does lose steam as the body count increases and the narrative draws to its conclusion. There's a certain monotony that sets in as the gang tries to make it out alive of this house of horrors with its sickly fluorescent greens and claustrophobic scuzziness. Nevertheless, its unrelenting pace, effective chills, and clever construct, and confident execution make this worthwhile viewing.

Green Room

Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier

Written by: Jeremy Saulnier

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Macon Blair, Eric Edelstein, Mark Webber