5/13/16 - Green Room (2015) - 7+/8-/10

Wow. I was bound up while watching it. Makes you want to clutch at yourself for comfort and reassurance. So intense and brutal, but not because of the gore or violence; Saulnier has a unique vision on the horror of violence. His is not the Ahnold death toll and one-liners. No, his is a quiet plainness. A reaction to the abnormality that is horrific death. He lingers not on the act, but the afterward, exploring it for its interminable gruesomeness and its retribution from a completely flawed, frail, and utterly normal human perspective. Action hero antics are a never-will-be in his film, instead, putting every moment in the hands and heads of the unwilling and uninitiated, instilling a cringing level of realistic palpability.

It's tight and compact, both in plot and in shot. Mostly done in a cramped space and mid-range close-up, you feel uneasily confined in the situation with them. The film also infuses that punk mentality, of short and quick, seemingly uncontrollable burst of energy that abruptly comes and closes.

The acting is strong and realistic. Yelchin and the band feel authentic lived in. Stewart is menacing but not cartoon-villainous. Almost all the characters and settings provide for this milieu of understanding and believability, be they the pseudo-outsider dog trainer that loves his hell hounds or the drugged psychopath that can still appreciate a song even when dispatching life. All these bits add to the strength of the protagonists and the piece as a whole.

So gut churning and hellacious in its dread and panic. There is an impending doom, seemingly inescapable, but it still is varied enough to keep one guessing. Visceral. Intense. Relatable. Wise. Tight. I don’t see this as midnight-movie fodder that many push it as, but rather another strong performance from a new master in the horror/thriller genre. Certainly not for everyone and it may be hard for some to watch, but torture-porn it is not. Highly recommend.