07. Green Room

07. GREEN ROOM

Director: Jeremy Saulnier

Release date: May 12, 2016

This year American writer-director Jeremy Saulnier followed the success of 2013’s critically acclaimed crowd-funded revenge flick Blue Ruin, with the dark and thrilling grindhouse throwback Green Room. It also featured one of the final performances by the talented Anton Yelchin.

This gritty and uber-violent tale follows the plight of young punk band the Ain’t Rights. They’re on a tour that isn’t going so well. They’re low on cash and willing to play anywhere. So much so that they take a dubious last-minute gig at a private party on a property outside Portland. When they arrive, the band find themselves in a full-blown Neo-Nazi compound. They’re part of the musical line-up for a skinhead piss-up.

When the band accidentally witnesses the aftermath of a violent murder, the Nazis panic and lock them in the green room. Leader of the skinheads, Darcy Banker (played with cold cruelty by Patrick Stewart), pragmatically decides that the easiest way to cover-up the crime is to murder the band. What follows is a particularly grim showdown, depicted with bloody flair and relentless realism.

Touring punk bands might find this situation all too real and all too plausible. If you’re prepared to flinch and wince in pain, then there’s a lot to be enjoyed about this impressive, nasty, funny uber-violent gorefest.