Green Room (film)

For the 1978 film, see The Green Room (film).

Green Room
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jeremy Saulnier
Produced by	Neil Kopp Victor Moyers Anish Savjani
Written by	Jeremy Saulnier
Starring	Anton Yelchin Imogen Poots Alia Shawkat Joe Cole Callum Turner Patrick Stewart
Music by	Brooke Blair Will Blair
Cinematography	Sean Porter
Edited by	Julia Bloch
Production company	Broad Green Pictures Film Science
Distributed by	A24
Release dates	May 17, 2015 (2015-05-17) (Cannes) April 15, 2016 (2016-04-15) (United States)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$3.7 million

Green Room is a 2015 American horror thriller film written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, and produced by Neil Kopp, Victor Moyers, and Anish Savjani. The film stars Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and Alia Shawkat as part of punk band who find themselves under threat of neo-Nazi skinheads after witnessing a murder at a remote club in the Pacific Northwest.

Filming began in October 2014 in Portland, Oregon. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film received a limited release on April 15, 2016 before being widely released on May 13 through A24.

Plot

Pat, Sam, Reece, and Tiger are members of a punk band "The Ain't Rights" traveling through the Pacific Northwest. In Seaside, Oregon, they meet Tad, a local radio host who sets them up with a gig outside Portland. On his show, Tad asks the band what their "desert island" band would be, with Pat unable to decide. They arrive at the club: a neo-Nazi skinhead bar located in the remote woods. The bands jokingly opens with a Dead Kennedys cover of "Nazi Punks Fuck Off", which enrages the audience, but win them over with their original songs after.

After the show, Sam forgets her phone in the green room. Pat goes to retrieve it, but finds two of the club regulars, Werm and Amber, standing over a dead young woman, Emily, with a knife embedded in her head. Pat, Sam, Reece, and Tiger are then locked in the room by two club bouncers, Gabe and Big Justin. When Pat calls 911, he is cut off by Gabe, while the band have their phones taken away from them and are instructed to remain at gunpoint.

Gabe consults the owner, Darcy, who concludes that it's "too late" and the group will have to be eliminated as witnesses. Meanwhile, in the room, the group overpowers Big Justin, and are able to take his gun. Having diverted armed forces, Darcy asks them to hand over their gun; they reluctantly agree, under the condition they keep the bullets. When they open the door, Reece unsuccessfully attacks Darcy with a metal rod. In response, Darcy and his henchmen slam Pat's left hand in the door and stab him repeatedly, breaking his fingers and mutilating his arm. Big Justin attacks the group but Reese is able to chokehold him; Justin regains consciousness and struggles unsuccessfully. Amber then disembowels him with a box cutter, effectively killing him.

The group searches for ways out of the room. They find an underground bunker beneath the floorboards with evidence of a heroin operation, but are unable to escape through it, while Pat tapes his hand to prevent infection. The group agrees to make a run for it, and each arm themselves with a crafted weapon. When they exit the green room, they find the club empty, but are attacked by pit bulls who are sent after them by Darcy's henchmen.

Tiger has his throat ripped by the pit bulls, killing him, while Sam flees into the back hallway, where she finds a fire extinguisher. Reece flees through the back window, but finds Alan, who cleaves him repeatedly and leaves him to die. Pat, Amber, and Sam return to the room, and meet another skinhead, Daniel; when Amber explains that Werm killed Emily and that Darcy is using the band as the culprits, he decides to help them. They exit the room, and Daniel takes a shotgun from underneath the bar, but is shot in the head and killed by a bouncer. Amber uses a microphone stand to divert the bouncer's shotgun, and Pat slits his throat with a machete. Armed, they attempt to leave, but multiple skinheads shoot back. Sam is shot in the leg, and is killed by a pit bull.

Pat and Amber, the only survivors, retreat and devise a plan. Darcy then sends two skinheads. Pat hides in the bunker, and makes battle cries, diverting one skinhead. While the other skinhead watches him enter, Amber, hiding under cushions, emerges and slits his throat with the box cutter. After taking his gun, Amber sprays the fire extinguisher down into the bunker, creating a fog, and then one-by-one throws the bodies of Emily, Justin, and the skinhead into the bunker, startling and causing the other to waste ammunition. He and Pat then struggle, but Amber eventually shoots and kills him.

Gabe comes to the green room and finds Pat and Amber; he plans to surrender to the police, and that Darcy is absent. Outside, it is dawn, and Gabe leaves to find a phone, while Amber and Pat flee into the woods. They stumble upon Darcy and Alan and Clark disposing of the band members' corpses, staging them as being attacked by dogs while siphoning gas. They quietly emerge from the woods and confront the trio. Amber and Pat shoot Alan and Clark, killing them. Whilst armed, Darcy is distracted and is shot repeatedly by both and dies. The two then sit on the side of the road and wait for police.

As they do, Pat mentions that he's figured out his desert island band; Amber responds, "Tell somebody who gives a shit." The film then ends.

Cast

• Anton Yelchin as Pat
• Imogen Poots as Amber
• Alia Shawkat as Sam
• Joe Cole as Reece
• Callum Turner as Tiger
• Patrick Stewart as Darcy Banker
• Macon Blair as Gabe
• Mark Webber as Daniel
• Taylor Tunes as Emily
• Brent Werzner as Werm
• Kasey Brown as Drummer
• Kai Lennox as Clark
• Eric Edelstein as Big Justin
• Samuel Summer as Jonathan
• David W. Thompson as Tad
• Colton Ruscheinsky as Alan

Production

On May 22, 2014, it was announced that Broad Green Pictures would finance and produce the crime thriller film directed and written by Jeremy Saulnier, with Film Science. Anish Savjani, Neil Kopp and Victor Moyers would produce the film. On October 16, Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots joined the lead cast of the film along with some others include Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Joe Cole, Macon Blair and Mark Webber. On October 21, Patrick Stewart was added to the cast to play Darcy Banker, the leader of a violent white supremacist group, while other cast includes Kai Lennox, Eric Edelstein and Taylor Tunes.

Filming

Principal photography began in October 2014 in Portland, Oregon. The location for Tad's house was shot in Astoria, Oregon on the Oregon coast, and the forest scenes were filmed in the Mount Hood National Forest.

Release

On October 29, 2014, WestEnd Films acquired the international rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2015. Shortly after it was announced A24 Films had acquired distribution rights to the film. The film has also been selected to screen opening night of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2015.

The film was originally to open in a limited release on April 1, 2016, before opening in a wide release on April 15, 2016. However, it was delayed to April 15, in limited release, and May 13 wide.

Box office

According to BoxOffice Mojo, Green Room opened at #30 in it's limited release, premiering in 3 theaters, culminating over $87,984. In its official wide release, the film premiered at 777 theaters, taking the #16 rank on opening weekend and grossing more than $411,376.

Critical reception

The film holds a 90% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 175 reviews, and has an average rating of 7.7/10. The critical consensus reads: "Green Room delivers unapologetic genre thrills with uncommon intelligence and powerfully acted élan." Metacritic reports an 79 out of 100 rating based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

IGN awarded Green Room a score on 9 out of 10, saying, "This follow-up to the brilliant Blue Ruin pits a rock band against white supremacists with ace, ultra-violent results." Guy Lodge of Variety called it "a technically sharp backwoods horror-thriller that lacks a human element". Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it is entertaining but "less disciplined, less original and less memorable work than Blue Ruin".

At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, the film finished third in the balloting for the Grolsch People's Choice Midnight Madness Award.

External links

• Official website
• Green Room at IMDb
• Green Room at Box Office Mojo
• Green Room at Rotten Tomatoes
• Green Room at Metacritic