Green Room (dir. Jeremy Saulnier, 2016)

**SPOILER ALERT: Some non-movie-spoiling spoilers to follow**

When I first saw the trailer for Green Room, I didn’t exactly know what to expect. I knew that the film was being released by A24, which is the independent distributor to beat at the moment, and I also knew that the film was directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who was responsible for the absolutely brutal revenge flick Blue Ruin (2013). The trailer left much to be anticipated and only revealed that the plot was centered around a group of young adults being held hostage by a bunch of neo-nazi skinheads. Oh, and it looked BLEAK AS FUCK. One thing friends of mine know well, is that I love a bleak film. There’s just something about tension and dread that gets my blood pumping and keeps me on the edge of my seat in the theatre. Needless-to-say, I was sold.

CUT TO:

EXT. ARCLIGHT CINEMA- DAY

After having seen the film, I can say that it totally exceeded my expectations. I figured it would be good but it was DAMN GOOD. The basic, spoiler-free synopsis goes like this: A punk band from Washington D.C. called The Ain’t Rights is on a DIY tour in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve exhausted all their resources and are siphoning gas to keep their tour van running. They are down on their luck, playing gigs that pay them 25 bucks to split between the four of them. A friendly punk Tad, with a mohawk and a full-time job, hooks them up with a gig in Portland at a venue where his cousin works. They ask if its “cool” and he assures them that they just get there, play the show, and are guaranteed 350 bucks. For anyone that knows the DIY punk scene, that sounds a little too good to be true. Well, it is. They travel to the venue, only to find out that it’s a nazi punk venue, which they are not down with. Needing the money, they stay to play the show anyway. They meet Gabe, the skin managing the gig, and he shuffles them off into the green room. At this point, the film has been running for about 15 to 20 minutes and you can already feel a level of heavy tension. The band feels uneasy and the audience feels it too. In the green room they find confederate flags and tons of neo-nazi tagging and imagery. In true punk fashion, they decide to fuck with the crowd and open their set with a cover of The Dead Kennedy’s “Nazi Punks, Fuck Off”. They antagonize the crowd but quickly win them over with the rest of their set. The show is successful, they have enough money to continue on their way, so they’re set…right? WRONG. In a classic case of wrong place at the wrong time, the skins are trying to get them out of the venue as fast as possible and tell them not to go back into the green room. Pat, played by Anton Yelchin, goes back in to get his phone charger against Gabe’s instruction and witnesses a bunch of skins standing around the body of a girl who has been stabbed in the head. They are all corralled into the green room under the pretense of “waiting for the authorities to arrive” and the Nazis won’t let them leave. That is as far as the plot goes before spoilers come into play, so just get to your local theatre and go see the rest for yourself.

DISCLAIMER: The film is EXTREMELY violent and gory.

Green Room is a relentlessly brutal film to watch. The tension builds within the first 20 minutes and is soon followed by violence and intense dread that doesn’t give you the chance to catch your breath until the credits roll 70 minutes later. I was personally on the edge of my seat, clenching my jaw, for 90 minutes and it takes a lot (cinematically) to make me sweat. The most amazing thing about the film was the ability to take such a simple concept as “punks vs. nazi skins” and turn it into such a compelling cinematic horror/thriller, reminiscent of classics like Straw Dogs (1971).

The cast consists of some well known actors and others that are new to the film scene. The performances by Anton Yelchin as Pat and Imogen Poots as the skinbyrd Amber are probably some of the best in the film. His sense of optimism and hope in the face of impending doom was juxtaposed nicely against her sardonic demeanor. Much of the dry comic relief comes out of their strange chemistry on screen. These two great performances only come second to the amazingly refined evil of Patrick Stewart as Darcy, the leader of the film’s neo-nazi faction. Until now, we’ve mostly seen Patrick Stewart playing a good guy. It was fantastic to see his immensely creepy portrayal of Darcy, inflated with a sense of validation for his beliefs and actions (as any good cult leader tends to be). It’s also good to note that Saulnier doesn’t create super-hero style characters, these are real people, in real danger, and the odds are not in their favor. It’s interesting to see how they handle their unfortunate predicament throughout the course of the film when not given any unrealistic and extraordinary advantages.

Green Room is one hell of a punk horror film. As a major horror film buff, it was just the thing I never knew I needed. Most punk horror comes in the package of “camp” (i.e.: Return of the Living Dead), which is fantastic for different reasons than this. Green Room is smart and incredibly well-acted. The cinematography alone manages to be gorgeous while remaining bleak and gritty, which is a feat in and of itself. And then there’s the soundtrack, which is the perfect mixture of heavy atmospheric score mixed with punk/metal/and black metal tracks of the old and new. LA black metal band HARASSOR is also featured on the soundtrack, so shout out to them!

All in all, I absolutely loved Green Room and would easily rate it a 5/5. It is a bleak and brutal punk thrill ride that keeps you guessing from start to finish. You might feel like you got hit by a tour van after leaving the theatre, but it’ll be ok, I promise.

——Taylor Agajanian