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I saw this film when it first came out, its official release date is the 15th of April 2016 and it's called Green Room, Written and Directed by Jeremy Saulnier.
I thought this was scary, I think it's classed as a Thriller, but, I would consider it to be a horror film.
There are no ghosts and ghouls in it, just scary skinheads, the leader of which is played by Patrick Stewart.
The film centers around a self-proclaimed underground punk band. The film begins by introducing this small group of characters on the road and we get to meet them and see how they talk with one another and act. Which gives us an insight into their lives as friends and a band. They're just floating around, playing some gigs and trying to get attention. They're also broke, as is easy to imagine. Playing with a punk band, I can say with confidence, that there is no money to be made doing it. Unless you're well known.
So I could empathize with the characters in the film, sometimes though. I really have to roll my eyes when I see "Punks" in films. They always seem to be written by people who don't know anything about mindset or music. Most are portrayed as nothing more than pole spikes and a bad attitude. Sometimes showcased as apathetic. As most people know even if they aren't punk rockers, is that politics and voicing concerns are a big part of the movement. Sure, it's kind of been stolen now and paraded around as looks only, but, that's only if you believe what the music industry has to say about it.
"The rats have all gone underground, but we'll be back again next time round'." - Rats by Subhumans
The eye-rolling started when they got interviewed by some punk guy who runs a blog or zine or something. The band starts to answer questions and this is where something magical happened. They were talking about bands and showing that the characters had a bit more grey matter than the typical. "We want anarchy dude. Chaos. Blah blah blah."
Cool, I was already coming along for the ride movie, but now I see that the driver isn't drunk. The writers are or were into it, or at the very least wanted to do these characters some justice.
The band are on their way to a gig and they're being paid for it. This is great for them, as we've already established that they're broke and have to siphon petrol from cars to get from point A to point B. So, they can't really afford to turn the gig down. Even though it's in the middle of nowhere. Which, if I'm not mistaken the interviewer tells them with a confused look. As if to say "What's out there?" Important because that kind of puts the thought in us, the audience's mind. Should we be nervous?
They get to this venue, in the middle of the forest, set up their gear and notice that the place is full of hill billys and skinheads. So, they're in the Green Room before playing saying. "WTF?"
Not a studded leather jacket or mohawk to be seen. Just a bunch of mean-looking angry lads.
They get up and play some of their own songs, the skinheads start skin heading around the dance floor. Then I think some bottles get thrown or something, the band are annoyed or whatever and say fuck it. Let's do a Dead Kennedys song.
So, they play Nazi Punks Fuck-Off by the Dead Kennedys which is great. This leads to more anger from the crowd and the band ends their set. They go into the Green Room and happen by the dead body of one of the skinhead girls and some of the skinhead guys standing around it. Well, the band can't leave now. They've seen too much.
It's all about them being trapped and trying to get away and in true horror movie fashion, the baddies start to kill the protagonists one by one. There are also a lot of pretty gruesome death scenes.
After Seeing This
Here's a funny story. So, you know how you watch something scary and you think. "Hmm, better check the front door is locked."
Well, shortly after watching this movie. My band got contacted on our page. Someone we didn't know, had offered us 550 Euro to come and play their birthday party in Roscommon. Which in case you don't know, is in the sticks, here in Ireland. They said they saw us play at one of the venues we put gigs on, but, we were like. "Why would they want to pay us that much if they saw us there? We played shite." That's not me being humble, saying "We're bad" Fishing for compliments.
We had a terrible tendency to get drunk and stoned before gigs. It wasn't like Nirvana being on pills at Reading. It was more like your sloppy uncle hogging the karaoke mic at a wedding. Kind of bad.
We went, but, me and the drummer were both convinced they were getting us up there to kill us. This movie helped that thought. Not even funny what we thought was going to happen.
But, the story ended happily for us, thankfully. We had a great night, they paid us well, treated us like royalty, they liked the sound, put us up for the night and we all partied until the next day and we all headed back home. Pretty messed up.
There were people from all over Ireland who came to celebrate the party, and a lot of Danes came over with the brother whose birthday it was.
I have to say, some of the soundest people were there and my god, did they know how to party. We got back to the house after the gig and were presented with something that can only be described as the "The Wall of Death." A wall stacked to the ceiling and the length of it with crates and cases of every beverage you could want. We brought 48 cans of Heineken with us and they laughed.
They drinked and drugged us. Luckily we weren't subjected to the horrors the poor punk band in the Green Room received.
Well worth watching it if you haven't seen it. It gets my pick for favourite horror movie. Even though I only saw it once, back, what? 6 years ago?
God, 6 years. I'm going to go cry for a while.