Green Room

Jeremy Saulnier has attracted some serious talent to star in the follow up to his 2013 sophomore Blue Ruin while retaining the same stylised, ultra-violent, independent spirit that made it such a festival hit.

Green Room begins with a hardcore punk band – The Ain’t Rights – as they tour the Pacific Northwest in a van. Broke, and struggling to keep the tour going, they accept a last minute gig for the “belts and braces” crowd at a clubhouse deep in the woods, where after witnessing a murder, the band (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner) find themselves trapped in the titular “green room” along with Amber (Imogen Poots), and surrounded by violent skinheads led by Gabe (Macon Blair) and Darcy (Patrick Stewart).

Green Room is an adrenaline shot. It’s a line of cinematic cocaine under fluorescent bathroom lights, and Jeremy Saulnier is the dealer in the leather jacket by the door. Strap yourself in and prepare for a nosebleed.

Simmering away; Green Room is tense until it’s shocking. As the band find themselves stranded backstage, and the severity of their predicament sets in, Saulnier ramps up his brand of pure audio-visual dread, drawing you in with each increment until a sickening crescendo pushes you back into your seat. Saulnier isn’t afraid to show gore, yet tasteful enough not to linger on it, and this film gets really violent!

Not at all for the squeamish, the violence on show is unforgiving, at some points repulsive. Drawing influence from the wrong place, wrong time; one location thrillers of the past, Green Room at times descends into pure horror. The camera perfectly captures the claustrophobia; the sense of no escape. The sickening violence foreshadowed by the lurid colour of the picture, fluorescent lights painting the room itself green.

Stewart’s Darcy is chilling in his delivery, genuinely scary; and Saulnier’s long-time collaborator Macon Blair is proving himself to be a find as Darcy’s protege. On the other side of the door, Anton Yelchin, who has found some very interesting roles in recent years, and Alia Shawkat drive up the likeability of the band, invoking the audience to empathise with their plight.

Green Room is exhilarating. Saulnier’s fine form continues from Blue Ruin in this captivating punk rock thriller, with as much raw energy in its story as the music in its soundtrack, he remains a writer/director to look out for. With fine independent filmmaking on show, and without being drawn out excessively – the film’s runtime coming in at a near perfect 95 minutes (sub 100 is surely attractive to a viewer deciding what to watch) Green Room gives 2016 a punch in the arm.

Written by Callum Mackenzie.