Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin was a masterpiece of grimness, gore and gallows humour. His colour-themed follow-up, Green Room, displays equal narrative deftness.
Punk band The Ain’t Rights are on the last leg of their tour – as well as the final remains of their cash, petrol and patience. To earn enough money to get home, they take a gig in what turns out to be a backwoods clubhouse for white supremacists – and it only gets worse from there. After witnessing a vicious crime, the young band barricade themselves in the venue’s green room, with ruthless leader Patrick Stewart and his army of machete-wielding “Red Laces” surrounding the building, waiting for them to emerge.
Despite the band’s mohawks and screaming music, their youth and innocence are immediately felt when faced with the neo-Nazis. Their sheer disbelief and panicked decisions highlight how relatably ordinary they are, bringing the audience into their horror.
And what horror. As the Red Laces embrace their instructions of “blades only, sloppy is fine” and attack dogs make literal mincemeat of their victims, Jessica Needham’s make-up team relish the video nasty-style slaughter. But the gore is matched with tension, as the claustrophobia and uncertainty terrifies, and the bleak grey surroundings offer no hope.
The stark characterisation, particularly of Stewart’s one-note killer and Amber Poots’ intriguing young gang member, who becomes the band’s unlikely ally, doesn’t always work. But as a survival tale with wickedly nasty violence and pitch-black humour, Green Room is a red hot success.
Rating 4/5