For horror fans who love an adrenaline-fueled, bloody, brutal picture, there is one thriller from the last decade that stands out as more gruesome, claustrophobic, and exhilarating than just about anything: A24’s 2015 film,Green Room, written and directed byJeremy Saulnier. The movie starsAnton Yelchinas the frontman of a punk band caught in a terrifying situation when the bar they are playing a gig at is revealed to be operated and patronized by neo-Nazis. After the band mistakenly witnesses a murder being covered up by a bar employee, they are locked in the titular green room as the staff tries to figure out how to best handle the situation.
Lead by the bar owner, portrayed in a sickeningly villainous performance byPatrick Stewart, the skinhead staff works to contain the situation by any means necessary, including hacking, slashing, and shooting their way out of this tense situation. Yelchin and the rest of the punk band (Alia Shawkat,Callum Turner, andJoe Cole) join forces withImogen Poots, a young woman who seemingly has been forced into associating with the skinheads, to survive through the night and find their way out of the bar.
Green Roomis a tightly-paced, electric thriller packed with compelling characters, a barrage of bloodshed, and deadly stakes which are compounded by how confined the setting is.Green Roomis a realistic, scary movie in so far as it puts normal people in a situation that is abnormal but not impossible; one that reminds the characters and audience alike how fragile the human body can be, and reveals the depths of evil that lurk within the darkest corners of humanity.Saulnier is a master of this form. The grimy and gory storytelling is so sickening that it is nightmare-inducing.
Green Room
A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar.
In ‘Green Room,’ Punk Is More Than an Aesthetic
The horror ofGreen Roomis significantly amped up by the fact that the protagonists are young, seemingly decent people who, through nothing more than a simple error in judgment, end up in a life-threatening and traumatic situation that will leave them broken, maimed, or dead by the end of the day. The film is all about the primal instinct to survive, and the intensity with which the characters fight matches their punk sensibilities.The punk lifestyle is not just an aesthetic for this group, because when push comes to shove, they take a violent stand against the film’s fascist villains. This is a group of regular people who find themselves in a horrifying situation, but they stick to their guns and fight until the very end.
The film depicts a real-world rift in punk music between the revolutionary politics of the historical movement and thefar-right groups that have co-opted that imagery, lifestyle, and art for their own causes. This schism is often characterized as going against the thesis of the punk movement, one rooted in revolutionary and anti-authoritarian ideals. The repurposing of the aesthetic among groups like the neo-Nazis depicted in the film serves to put a shiny new look on the real horror that is this oppressive, violent group of people.Green Roomis bold, and maybe even somewhat prescient, in how it starkly depicts a group of militant white supremacists as a cause for urgent concern and a problem requiring decisive, swift action. The film is not often textually engaging with politics through dialogue, but the underlying rift between the punk band and the neo-Nazis is always on its mind, allowingGreen Roomto be a sobering and intensely upsetting reflection of real-world horrors faced in America today.
The Gruesome Gore in ‘Green Room’ Makes a Shocking Impression
The element that most contributes toGreen Room’s visceral thrills is, well, the viscera. This is not a movie for the faint of heart. This fact becomes clear from the first moment that blood is shed and never slows down in intensity. Box cutters, shotguns, wild dogs, and machetes tear away at characters throughout the film. One particular instance early on involving an off-screen, repeated slashing of a character’s forearm with a machete results in sounds and imagery that are so sickeningly realistic that even the most well-seasoned horror fans may struggle to keep their eyes on the screen. As this arm flails around, barely hanging on in multiple places as the deep cuts are almost severed completely,Green Room’s stakes are made clear. If the band cannot find their way out of this situation, every one of them will die a brutal death.
The violence inGreen Roomis thankfully presented in fairly short bursts, but what makes it so effective is that it is not cartoonish at all. While a franchise likeFriday the 13thcan depict bisections, decapitations, and eyes popping out all over the place, the effects and the overall tone of the films allow these moments to be played in a much lighter tone. You appreciate the VFX work, but you don’t really care about the characters, so you probably are cheering when heads start flying.In contrast,Green Roomis a film where the violence has a disturbing, uncanny quality because of how grounded it is.
InGreen Room, the violence feels real.Every injury or death is depicted with sound design, blood and gore effects, and performances that reflect the intensity and disgust of the situation.You are not rooting for the villains, as you might cheer forMichael Myers or Freddy Krueger. At the same time, when the band members do get one over on the villains, it is not cathartic because it is played in such a way that reminds the audience how traumatic this situation will be for anyone who can manage to make it out alive. You want to see Yelchin and the rest of the gang escape, but you also have already accepted that what they have seen and done has changed them forever.
‘Green Room’ Pairs Well With Jeremy Saulnier’s Previous Thriller, ‘Blue Ruin’
Saulnier is a frequent collaborator of filmmaker and actorMacon Blair, who plays Gabe, one of the club’s workers, inGreenRoom. Saulnier’s previous feature,Blue Ruin, stars Blair as a man living out of his car who embarks on a revenge quest after hearing that his parents' killer has been released from prison. The film doesn’t play as a horror movie to the degree thatGreen Roomdoes, the key difference being that Dwight is intentionally entering a world of brutality inBlue RuinwhileGreen Room’s characters are unwillingly trapped in such an environment. The participation against their will, the “wrong place, wrong time” bad luck that befalls them is what makesGreen Roomso terrifying.
Nevertheless, the films are quite similar in style and presentation, and each follows characters who are refreshingly realistic in how they approach the kind of situations that normal people are not accustomed to handling.Dwight, inBlue Ruin, is so in over his head that you are amazed he can even fire a gun right at certain points. His rage is guiding him because if he approached this path with any sense of rationale, he would not be making these decisions. This makes it a tense viewing experience, and one which similarly explodes in bursts of bloodshed that leave a significant impression. The two films are great examples of how the suspense of a story can be bolstered by it being grounded in a familiar reality.
Saulnier and Blair are an electric duo. They have been working together for years, and the success they have found in independent and horror filmmaking has been a dream come true asthey are childhood friends who have aspired to make movies since they first met. Blair has appeared in all of Saulnier’s directorial features except fortheJeffreyWright-ledHold the Dark, but he was not completely absent from the production as Blair wrote the screenplay for the film. Blair has become a director in his own right, withI Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymorereleasing in 2017 and hisElijah WoodandPeter Dinklagestarring remake of the Troma black-comedy splatter filmThe Toxic Avenger, which premiered at 2023’s Fantastic Fest. While Saulnier and Blair continue their friendship and working relationship behind the scenes, it would be great to see another actor-director collaboration as grimy, grizzly, and entertaining as the horror-thriller masterpiece that isGreen Room.
Green Roomis available to rent or buy on Apple TV+
