One of the reasons I enjoy writing is because I want to share my love of films with other people. I’ve always taken pride in introducing friends, family, and now strangers, to movies that have changed my life. The reverse is also incredibly special, when someone shares one of their favourite films with you. Due to ongoing chronic illness, I am largely housebound at the moment, so my ability to share films in-person is more limited than it used to be. I sought out Second Sight’s new 4K UHD release of Green Room so that I could share the experience of watching with one of my best friends, who adores it. This was my first time watching the film since 2017. I had vivid memories of a few scenes and a hazy recollection of the rest, while Aaron was on his fourth viewing and would’ve been capable of an audio commentary. When we lived together during lockdown and had a riot watching Jeremy Saulnier’s silly low-budget debut Murder Party, we had a more fittingly nightmarish experience with his third feature Green Room.
A struggling punk band, The Ain’t Rights, Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawcat), Reece (Joe Cole), Tiger (Callum Turner), agree to play a gig in remote Portland and are warned not to mention politics. After they arrive, they realise the venue is a Neo-Nazi bar and play a cover of Nazi Punks Fuck Off in protest. As the band are leaving, Pat heads back to the green room to retrieve his forgotten phone and finds Amber (Imogen Poots) grieving the death of her friend Amber, who has just been stabbed to death by a member of a skinhead band. Pat tries to flee, calling the police in the process and informing them of a stabbing, but his phone is confiscated by the bar manager Gabe (Macon Blair) before he finishes reporting the crime. The band are quickly ushered into the green room and locked inside with Big Justin, a skinhead bouncer, who holds them hostage at gunpoint. The bar owner Darcy (Patrick Stewart) is called in to contain the situation. The police arrive and Gabe pays a skinhead teenager to stab another and take the fall for the stabbing which Pat reported to the police. While trying to escape the green room, the band discovers the club is a front for selling heroin and realises the scope of the operation. Darcy arrives and tries to create a sense of trust by getting Big Justin to give the band the gun. Darcy tells them if they hand the gun over then they can leave. As Pat does so, Amber realises they’re being deceived and Pat is attacked with a blade and nearly has his hand severed. The band are able to retreat into the green room, lock themselves in and kill big Justin. Darcy calls in a team to make sure there are no witnesses left alive. With no alternative way out, the band are forced to fight for their escape while being outnumbered and outgunned.
My viewing was marked by strong physical reactions in spite of knowing what to expect. This film haunted my body; the anxiety I held in my chest, the fingernails I chewed down and the feeling in my stomach at seeing Pat’s near severed hand. The way Aaron was wincing alongside me, while on his fourth viewing, is a testament to Green’s Room enduring power. It is a perfectly crafted film that traps you inside the club alongside its character and forces you to share in their dread. It is a slow descent into hell and then soon as we get there, it is relentless and ruthless. The violence is fittingly brutal and shocking. Characters are dispatched in sudden and ferocious fashion. This explicitness raises the stakes, creates urgent danger and creates an atmosphere of unpredictable evil.
You want to believe this situation is impossible, but Jeremy Saulnier shows you how easily it could be real.
Green Room achieves an unrivalled sense of claustrophobia through harmonious collaboration behind the camera. Ryan Warren Smith’s Production Design is impeccable. The club is a living, breathing monster. Ragged walls are adorned with racist iconography. The green room is plagued by hate. Shadowy corridors conceal murderers. Saulnier makes the club feel like a maze through the way he never allows us to confidently navigate the space. Sean Porter’s camera follows the band closely as they enter the club, restricting our comprehension of the space, which creates a sense of delirium as the events unfold. It’s terrifying as a viewer to lose your sense of control and Saulnier makes you feel helpless in the ultimate haunted house.
Technical wizardry can only get you so far and Green Room’s other key to success is its brilliant cast. Saulnier assembles a young and up-and-coming cast who are instantly likeable and empathetic — I couldn’t pick a favourite performance, I love them all – pairing them with regular collaborator Macon Blair and Patrick Stewart, who is ghastly playing against type. The chemistry between the band feels organic, while the bile and hate that Stewart conveys is frighteningly truthful. I think that’s what makes Green Room such an unforgettable experience. You want to believe this situation is impossible, but Jeremy Saulnier shows you how easily it could be real.
Green Room is a modern genre classic and completely deserving of the 4K treatment from Second Sight. The UHD disc is a marvel. The clarity of the image helps you feel completely immersed in the film’s surroundings. It’s like you can smell the club. It also allows you to appreciate Sean Porter’s striking cinematography. It’s easy to forget that Green Room utilises stunning locations to create contrast with its main setting. There’s a distinct serenity to the films opening and closing that reminds you of all the beauty in the world outside of the ugliness within the club — it begins in a cinematic cornfield, followed by Pat and Sam riding their bike along an idyllic rural coast. It ends with a dog that has been bred to kill quietly laying down beside its deceased owner. What happens in-between is horrific and this restoration allows you to experience that horror to the full. I feel privileged to have shared that with one of my best friends.
Second Sight has packed the Special Features for this release and they shed light on the punk spirit behind the camera by showing how the talented cast and crew helped make Green Room feel so much bigger than its budget. I was fascinated by the interview with Ryan Warren Smith about how he designed the film and I also loved Jeremy Saulnier’s audio commentary that gives great insight into how he realised his vision. There’s so much more to dig into; Going Hardcore: an interview with Saulnier, Punk Rock: an interview with Callum Turner, Rocking Out: an interview with Composters Brook & Will Blair, Nazi Punks Fuck Off: Thomas Caldwell on Green Room, Achieve Featurette: Into The Pit – Making Green Room and another Audio commentary by Reyna Cervantes and Prince Jackson.
Green Room is out now on Second Sight 4K Blu-Ray
