Green Room | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jeremy Saulnier |
Written by | Jeremy Saulnier |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Sean Porter |
Edited by | Julia Bloch |
Music by |
|
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | A24 |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 95 minutes [1] |
Country | United States [2] |
Language | English |
Budget | $5 million [3] |
Box office | $3.8 million [4] |
Green Room is a 2015 American horror-thriller film [5] [6] written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, and produced by Neil Kopp, Victor Moyers and Anish Savjani. Starring Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner and Patrick Stewart, the film focuses on a punk band who find themselves attacked by neo-Nazi skinheads after witnessing a murder at a remote club in the Pacific Northwest.
Principal photography took place during October 2014 in Portland, Oregon. The film was financed and produced by Broad Green Pictures. Green Room was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. [7] At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, the film finished third in the balloting for the Grolsch People's Choice Midnight Madness Award. [8] The film began a limited release on April 15, 2016, before being widely released on May 13 through A24. [9] It appeared on many critics' lists as one of the best films of 2016 and received a 2017 Empire Award nomination for Best Horror, but grossed just $3 million against a budget of $5 million.
Pat, Sam, Reece and Tiger are members of a punk band, the Ain't Rights, travelling through the Pacific Northwest. After their gig is cancelled, a local radio host, Tad, arranges a show through his cousin, Daniel, at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar in the woods outside Portland, opening for the Nazi metal band Cowcatcher.
After the show, Pat returns to the green room to retrieve Sam's phone. He sees the body of a girl, Emily, who has been stabbed to death by Werm, a member of Cowcatcher. Pat calls the police, but the bar employees Gabe and Big Justin confiscate the band's phones and hold them captive in the green room. Gabe pays a skinhead to stab another to create a cover story for the police who respond to the call. He consults with the bar owner and skinhead leader, Darcy, who decides to kill the band to eliminate witnesses.
The band overpowers Big Justin and holds him hostage, taking a boxcutter from his pocket and his pistol. They negotiate through the door with Darcy, who asks them to surrender the pistol. Pat agrees, but as he opens the door, Emily's friend Amber realizes it is a trap. Darcy and his men slash at Pat's arm with machetes until he drops the gun, but he closes the door. Big Justin attacks the band, but Reece chokes him into unconsciousness. When Big Justin surprises Reece by awaking again, Reece chokes Big Justin again and Amber cuts him with a boxcutter to confirm that he is dead.
Searching for a way out, the band discovers an underground drug lab, but the only exit is locked from the outside. Arming themselves with improvised weapons, they exit the green room into the empty club. A skinhead, Clark, unleashes an attack dog, which kills Tiger. Amber and Pat drive the dog away with microphone feedback. Reece flees through a window but is hacked to death by a skinhead.
Pat, Amber, and Sam retreat to the green room. Darcy sends Daniel into the club to kill the band, who Darcy claims murdered Emily. Amber tells Daniel that Werm murdered Emily after discovering Daniel and Emily planned to leave the skinheads. Daniel agrees to help them escape and leads the band into the club, where he is shot dead by the bartender. The group kills the bartender and takes his shotgun, but Clark's dog kills Sam. Darcy's men wound Amber, who scrambles back to the green room with Pat.
Darcy sends the skinheads Jonathan and Kyle to kill Pat and Amber, and he leaves with the bodies, planning to stage their deaths to appear as if they were killed trespassing. Pat lures Jonathan into the drug lab while Kyle remains in the green room. Amber ambushes Kyle and cuts his throat with the boxcutter. As Pat fights Jonathan, Amber sneaks up and shoots him. Gabe enters the green room to find his companions dead and surrenders to Pat and Amber.
Holding Gabe at gunpoint, the group trek through the woods. When Pat hears Darcy and his men staging the crime scene, he and Amber go after them. Gabe volunteers to go into a farm and call the police. Pat and Amber kill Clark and another skinhead. Fleeing, Darcy pulls a revolver from his jacket but is shot dead by Pat and Amber. Pat and Amber sit on the side of the road and wait for the police.
The film came from Saulnier's desire to create a thriller set in a green room, calling the idea "an obsession". [10] Saulnier created a short film set in one as part of a 48-hour film challenge in 2007 which involved the supernatural and according to Saulnier was "Really kind of fun and hammy." However, he still wanted a chance to do his green room movie "the right way". [10] Although the film features a large amount of violence and what Saulnier calls "full frontal gore", he has gone on record as stating that it is not "sadistic", and that every act of violence apart from the initiating incident is done with a reason. [11] As such Saulnier made sure that there were no "gratuitous close ups" of recently deceased characters. [11]
On May 22, 2014, it was announced that Broad Green Pictures would finance and produce the film directed and written by Jeremy Saulnier, with Film Science. [12] Anish Savjani, Neil Kopp and Victor Moyers would produce the film. [12] On October 16, Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots joined the lead cast of the film, along with Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Joe Cole, Macon Blair and Mark Webber. [13] On October 21, Patrick Stewart was added to the cast to play Darcy Banker, the leader of a violent white supremacist group, [14] while other cast includes Kai Lennox, Eric Edelstein and Taylor Tunes. [14]
Principal photography began in October 2014 in Portland, Oregon. [15] [16] The location for Tad's house was in Astoria, Oregon, on the Oregon coast, and the forest scenes were filmed in the Mount Hood National Forest. [17] Filming concluded in late November 2014. [18]
Saulnier, who used to play in a hardcore punk band called No Turn on Fred, [19] wanted the film to "stand the test of real musicians scrutinizing every frame". [20] He enlisted Hutch Harris of American indie rock band The Thermals to teach the actors the musical parts that they would be performing onscreen. [21] The film's soundtrack is largely populated by heavy metal artists like Midnight rather than white nationalist bands. Saulnier says that he wanted the club to have more of a Motörhead-like atmosphere, and that he had no intention of financially supporting white nationalist artists. [22]
In addition to the songs appearing on the soundtrack, Green Room features several other punk and metal tracks, including Fear's "Legalize Drugs" (1995), Napalm Death's "Suffer the Children" (1990), Obituary's "Paralyzed with Fear" (2014), Poison Idea's "Taken By Surprise" (1990), Slayer's "War Ensemble" (1990), and Bad Brains' "Right Brigade" (1982). [23]
Green Room (Original Soundtrack Album) | |
---|---|
Soundtrack album by various artists | |
Released | April 15, 2016 |
Genre | Punk rock |
Length | 59:47 |
Label | Milan Records |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Weapons Ready" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 2:17 |
2. | "What Have I Become?" |
| The Ain't Rights | 2:19 |
3. | "Corpus Rottus" | Corpus Rottus | Corpus Rottus | 3:02 |
4. | "Oregon Coast" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 0:50 |
5. | "Balefire" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 0:51 |
6. | "Prowling Leather" | Jamie Walters | Midnight | 3:38 |
7. | "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" | The Ain't Rights | 1:07 | |
8. | "Red Laces" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 2:00 |
9. | "Pour A Floor" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 2:38 |
10. | "Blades And Fangs" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 3:15 |
11. | "Coronary" | Sam Jones | The Ain't Rights | 3:03 |
12. | "Inevitable Failure" | Hochstedder | Hochstedder | 3:13 |
13. | "Mosh Pit" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 0:55 |
14. | "Mopping Up" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 2:18 |
15. | "Let's Pretend" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 3:10 |
16. | "Savage Pressure" | Battletorn | Battletorn | 1:04 |
17. | "Takin' Out The Trash" |
| Patsy's Rats | 3:17 |
18. | "Melted" |
| Patsy's Rats | 2:44 |
19. | "Odin Himself" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 6:10 |
20. | "Fresh Air" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 1:38 |
21. | "The Residence" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 3:10 |
22. | "We Need The Police" |
| Brooke Blair and Will Blair | 1:46 |
23. | "Sinister Purpose" | John Cameron Fogerty | Creedence Clearwater Revival | 3:20 |
24. | "Toxic Evolution" | Sam Jones | The Ain't Rights | 2:02 |
Total length: | 59:47 |
On October 29, 2014, WestEnd Films acquired the international rights to the film. [25] The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2015. [6] Shortly after, it was announced A24 had acquired distribution rights to the film. [26] The film screened on opening night of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, on September 10, 2015. [27]
The film was originally to open in a limited release on April 1, 2016, before opening in a wide release on April 15, 2016. [28] However, it was moved to April 15, in limited release, and May 13 wide. [9]
Lionsgate, as the home media distributor of A24 releases, released Green Room on Blu-ray and DVD on July 12, 2016. [29] The end credits of the film's home media and subsequent releases feature an addended dedication to the memory of star Yelchin, who died on June 19, 2016. [30]
According to Box Office Mojo , Green Room opened at #30 in its 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. [4]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 250 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Green Room delivers unapologetic genre thrills with uncommon intelligence and powerfully acted élan." [31] Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [32]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times praised Patrick Stewart, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat and Macon Blair's performances and called the film "a wonderfully nasty, gruesome, jagged-edge gem of a horror film" that has "first-rate" cinematography, set design, soundtrack, and editing. [33] Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail awarded it a full four stars and wrote, "Jeremy Saulnier (Murder Party, Blue Ruin) continues one of the best streaks in independent horror with this terrifying and inventive thriller." [34] Lenika Cruz of The Atlantic said it's "a tense gore-fest, one that’s as grimy and claustrophobic as the titular room. But scrape off the scum, and you’ll find Green Room full of visual artistry, dark humor, smart writing, and glints of humanity". [35] IGN awarded it a score of 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." [36]
Jeffrey Bloomer of Slate favorably compared the film's "genre maturity", "amoral survivalism and malleable sense of good and evil", "brutal efficiency" and "weary humor" to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 and praised the cast, writing "If the world knows any justice[...] then the Screen Actors Guild will remember this cast when it doles out its awards next year". [37] James Berardinelli concludes the film is "for anyone who enjoys sitting through 90 tense minutes and feeling the attendant adrenaline rush. It’s like a well-constructed horror movie" that's "As intimate as it is unnerving". [38] Guy Lodge of Variety called it "a technically sharp backwoods horror-thriller that lacks a human element". [6] Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it's entertaining but "less disciplined, less original and less memorable work than Blue Ruin ". [39]
Green Room was listed on many film critics' top ten lists. [40]
Year | Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015 | Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival | H.R. Giger «Narcisse» Award | Green Room | Won | [41] |
Audience Award | Green Room | Won | |||
Denis-de-Rougemont Youth Award | Green Room | Won | |||
Deauville Film Festival | Grand Prix | Green Room | Nominated | [42] | |
Toronto International Film Festival | Grolsch People's Choice Midnight Madness Award | Green Room | 3rd place | [43] | |
Austin Fantastic Fest | Audience Award | Green Room | 1st place | [44] | |
Festival du nouveau cinéma | Temps Ø People's Choice Award | Green Room | Won | [45] | |
IndieWire Critics' Poll | Most Anticipated Film of 2016 | Green Room | 3rd place | [46] | |
2016 | BloodGuts UK Horror Awards | Best Original Film | Green Room | Nominated | [47] |
Best Actor | Anton Yelchin | Nominated | [48] | ||
Best Screenplay/Script | Jeremy Saulnier | Nominated | [49] | ||
National Board of Review Awards | Top Ten Independent Films | Green Room | Won | [50] | |
Fright Meter Awards | Best Horror Movie | Green Room | Nominated | [51] | |
Best Actor in a Leading Role | Anton Yelchin | Nominated | |||
Best Supporting Actress | Imogen Poots | Nominated | |||
Best Supporting Actor | Patrick Stewart | Nominated | |||
Best Score |
| Nominated | |||
2017 | Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | Best Film | Green Room | Nominated | [52] |
Best Actor | Anton Yelchin | Nominated | |||
Best Supporting Actor | Patrick Stewart | Nominated | |||
Best Makeup & SFX | Wayne Eaton | Won | |||
Empire Awards | Best Horror | Green Room | Nominated | [53] | |
Seattle Film Critics Awards | Best Villain | Patrick Stewart | Nominated | [54] | |
John Howard Carpenter is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is generally recognized as a master of the horror genre. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors' Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award and lauded him as "a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions".
Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewellery, and body modifications of the punk counterculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited to the dressed-down look of North American hardcore. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including glam rock, skinheads, greasers, and mods have influenced punk fashion. Punk fashion has likewise influenced the styles of these groups, as well as those of popular culture. Many punks use clothing as a way of making a statement.
Danielle Riley Keough is an American actress. She made her feature film debut in a supporting part in the musical biopic The Runaways (2010), portraying Marie Currie. Keough subsequently starred in the independent thriller The Good Doctor (2011), before being cast in a minor role in Steven Soderbergh's comedy film Magic Mike (2012). She had her first big-budget release in the action feature Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
Anton Viktorovich Yelchin was an American actor. Born in the Soviet Union to a Russian Jewish family, he emigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of six months. He began his career as a child actor, appearing as the lead of the mystery drama film Hearts in Atlantis (2001) and a series regular on the Showtime comedy-drama Huff (2004–2006). Yelchin landed higher-profile film roles in 2009, portraying Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek reboot and Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation. He reprised his role as Chekov in the sequels Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016).
Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor. He began his career in 1995, starring in Broadway musicals. He received nominations for two Tony Awards for his roles in The Full Monty (2000–2001) and Oklahoma! (2002). He co-starred in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Angels in America (2003), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
"Nazi Punks Fuck Off" is a song by American punk rock band Dead Kennedys. It was released in November 1981 through Alternative Tentacles as a 7-inch single with "Moral Majority" as the B-side. Both are from the In God We Trust, Inc. EP, although the EP version is a different recording from the single version. The single included a free armband with a crossed-out swastika. The design was later adopted as a symbol for the anti-racist punk movement Anti-Racist Action.
Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Imogen Gay Poots is an English actress. She played Tammy in the post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Weeks Later (2007), Linda Keith in the Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013), Debbie Raymond in the Paul Raymond biopic The Look of Love (2013), and Julia Maddon in the American action film Need for Speed (2014). Also in 2014, she portrayed Jess Crichton in A Long Way Down, alongside Pierce Brosnan and Aaron Paul. She appeared as Isabella "Izzy" Patterson in Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way. In 2016, she starred as Kelly Ann in the Showtime series Roadies. In 2019, she co-starred with Jesse Eisenberg in the films Vivarium and The Art of Self-Defense. In 2020, she played Laura in The Father (2020). In 2022, she began playing the role of the mysterious Autumn in the Prime Video science fiction neo-Western series Outer Range.
Harry John Newman Treadaway is an English actor. His credits include Control (2007), City of Ember (2008), Fish Tank (2009), Pelican Blood (2010), Flight of the Storks (2012), Mr. Mercedes (2017-2018), The Crown (2019), Star Trek: Picard (2020), Deceit (2021), and The Chemistry of Death (2023).
Logan Miller is an American actor. He is known for starring in the Disney XD sitcom I'm in the Band (2009–2011) and for voicing Sam Alexander / Nova in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man (2012–2017). In films, he has starred in Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015), A Dog's Purpose (2017), Love, Simon (2018), Escape Room (2019), and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021).
Toby Victor Mott is a British artist, designer, and sometime Punk historian known for his work with the Grey Organisation, an artists' collective that was active in the 1980s, and for his fashion brand Toby Pimlico. More recently he has become known for his Mott Collection, an archive of UK punk rock and political ephemera that includes over 1,000 posters, flyers, and fanzines.
Ice Nine Kills is an American heavy metal band from Boston, Massachusetts, who are signed to Fearless Records. Best known for its horror-inspired lyrics, Ice Nine Kills formed in its earliest incarnation in 2000 by high school friends Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz. Charnas is currently the only remaining founding member.
Christian Marco Picciolini is an American former extremist who is the founder of the Free Radicals Project, a global network working to prevent extremism and help people disengage from hate movements. He is the author of a memoir, Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead, which details his time as a leader of the white power movement in the U.S. An updated version of the story was published in 2017, titled White American Youth: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement--and How I Got Out. His book Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism (2020) looks at how extremists recruit the vulnerable to their causes.
The Empire Award for Best Thriller is an Empire Award presented annually by the British film magazine Empire to honor the best thriller film of the previous year. The Empire Award for Best Thriller is one of four new Best Film ongoing awards which were first introduced at the 11th Empire Awards ceremony in 2006 with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang receiving the award. Winners are voted by the readers of Empire magazine.
"Black Skinhead" is a song by American rapper Kanye West, from his sixth studio album Yeezus (2013). It was produced by West and Daft Punk. The song's lyrics center on racial tensions and the crumbling mental state of the character West portrays on the album. The song premiered on Saturday Night Live in May 2013, with West performing it in front of a projected backdrop. He has since performed the song live on various occasions, including at the Glastonbury Festival and the Billboard Music Awards in 2015. It was universally praised by music critics and ranked by numerous sites, including Rolling Stone and NME, as one of the best tracks of 2013. The song's accompanying music video was directed by Nick Knight and features computer-generated imagery of West, with interactive options including "screen grabbing" and adjusting the speed of his vocals. The video was released in July 2013 and has received positive reviews from critics.
Olivia Kate Cooke is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Alicent Hightower in the fantasy drama television series House of the Dragon (2022–present). In television, she has starred as Emma Decody in the thriller Bates Motel (2013–2017), Becky Sharp in the period drama Vanity Fair (2018), and a spy in the thriller Slow Horses (2022).
Jeremy Saulnier is an American film director, cinematographer and screenwriter.
Macon Blair is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, comic book writer and actor known for his roles in the films Blue Ruin (2013) and Green Room (2015), as well as his directorial debut I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017).
Hold the Dark is a 2018 American action thriller film directed by Jeremy Saulnier from a screenplay by Macon Blair. It is based upon the novel of the same name by William Giraldi. The film stars Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgård, James Badge Dale, Riley Keough, Tantoo Cardinal, and Julian Black Antelope. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2018, and was released on September 28, 2018, by Netflix.