Once Upon a Twilight!: Movie Review: A24's Green Room

Green Room
Directed By: Jeremy Saulnier
Written By: Jeremy Saulnier
Produced By: Anish Savjani, Neil Kopp, Victor Moyers
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Mark Webber, Eric Edelstein, Macon Blair, Kai Lennox
Release Date: April 29 (Nationwide)
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rating: R for strong brutal graphic violence, gory images, language and some drug content

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Green Room is a brilliantly crafted and wickedly fun horror-thriller starring Patrick Stewart as a diabolical club owner who squares off against an unsuspecting but resilient young punk band.Down on their luck punk rockers The Ain’t Rights are finishing up a long and unsuccessful tour, and are about to call it quits when they get an unexpected booking at an isolated, run-down club deep in the backwoods of Oregon. What seems merely to be a third-rate gig escalates into something much more sinister when they witness an act of violence backstage that they weren’t meant to see. Now trapped backstage, they must face off against the club’s depraved owner, Darcy Banker (Stewart), a man who will do anything to protect the secrets of his nefarious enterprise. But while Darcy and his henchmen think the band will be easy to get rid of, The Ain’t Rights prove themselves much more cunning and capable than anyone expected, turning the tables on their unsuspecting captors and setting the stage for the ultimate life-or-death showdown.

I don't usually sit for horror movies. But, Green Room, this week's scary movie, didn't seem like the run of the mill horror film. I would call this film more of a smart thriller/horror film.

I'm glad that I decided to spend time in the Green Room. It was genuine, wicked, fun. It's a tight ninety minutes of gruesome excitement. I may have held my breath for some of it. I'm pretty sure that I didn't blink during the entire movie. I was too scared to look away, even at the more gory parts. Also, I was afraid that something even more gruesome would come along to surprise me. If you're a fan of horror movies, you are sure to like this one.

The plot started a bit slow. Because I knew it was a horror movie, I wanted to get on with it. Let's go. Get to the scary stuff. It wasn't an extended amount of time, but it was enough that I had time to think it was taking too long to get going. The anticipation was killing me.

Once the story gets going, it moves pretty fast. The plot is simple enough. I don't want to go into any of the plot points as not to spoil anything. Put simply, it's a story of wrong place at the wrong time. There aren't any sub-plots or tangents. You can't be confused about the good guys and the bad guys. The bad guys are most definitely bad, and they are well-armed.

It's a fresh faced cast all the way around. Other than Imogen Poots and Patrick Stewart, the audience won't recognize any of the actors. I liked that there aren't many well-known actors. That way, the audience can't tell who, if anyone, stands the best chance of surviving.

All in all, I think this is an excellent choice for a movie theater experience. You want to be completely immersed in the gory horror. Plus, the sound effects sounded great in the theater. I can't say a bad thing about Green Room. Go see it when it opens in theaters on April 29.