Green Room [Blu-Ray] 
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart
Release Date: Available on Blu-ray & DVD July 12, 2016
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 9.5/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10
Synopsis:
After witnessing a shocking crime, a young rock band is unexpectedly thrust into a life-or-death battle to escape the clutches of a diabolical club owner (Stewart) and his ruthless henchmen in this white-knuckle thriller.
‘Green Room’ tells the story of a small and incredibly dedicated punk band whose musical journey via their beater van has left them entirely broke prior to their upcoming show. After their scheduled gig is cancelled last minute leaving them with no funds or manner of moving on, they are forced to accept a questionable gig at an out of the way club dedicated to Neo Nazi’s where their performance is greeted with rage and plenty of beer cans and other inanimate objects being lopped at the stage. Following their brief set, the band is thrilled simply to gather their payment and hit the road, yet on their way out they accidently witness the aftermath of a murder in the club’s green room and are subsequently forced to barricade themselves within as they are confronted by a horde of men and trained attack dogs who all want the troublesome witnesses disposed of. The main issue now is that the one way in for those who want them dead is also their only way out.
Written and directed by the incredibly talented Jeremy Saulnier who has been on my radar since I had the pleasure of experiencing his impressive and gritty revenge film ‘Blue Ruin’, Saulnier does a magnificent job once again at the helm of ‘Green Room’ guiding his own script with a ferocious and painfully realistic vigor. This fantastic film also owes its share of credit to the talented individuals who comprise the cast including Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Odd Thomas) who was sadly killed in an unfortunate automobile related accident very recently. The cast also includes Patrick Stewart (X-Men, TV’s Blunt Talk), Imogen Poots (Knight of Cups, TV’s Roadies), Alia Shawkat (The Driftless Area, TV’s Arrested Development) along with regular Saulnier collaborator Macon Blair (Blue Ruin, Murder Party) and a number more, nearly all of whom delivering notable or at least capable performances in each of their respective roles, although Stewart easily steals the show with his menacing and eerily calm portrayal of the Neo Nazi’s leader.
‘Green Room’ is a painfully intense, realistic and often brutally graphic thrill ride that grabs hold of you from the onset and never relents until the credits finally roll. The film channels some of the best horror entries in its uncompromising approach and unsettling demeanor while never falling specifically into that category courtesy of the realism regarding the whole ordeal which unlike so many genre films grounds itself in reality and never falters away from being terrifyingly plausible. Filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier impresses yet again, following his phenomenal ‘Blue Ruin’ with an equally powerful, if not slightly more impressive entry that is perfectly complimented by the powerful performances from a collection of talented individuals including the late Anton Yelchin and a horrifying and brilliant show stealing performance by Patrick Stewart. Any fan of horror films or unrelenting thrillers will not want to miss out on ‘Green Room’, especially those who don’t have any issue with some notably gruesome moments of which there are certainly a fair share.
Overall, ‘Green Room’ is a phenomenal thriller and yet another truly outstanding film from talented writer and director Jeremy Saulnier who continues to impress. Boosted by notable performances from a number of talented actors including Anton Yelchin and Patrick Stewart, ’Green Room’ delivers a tense, bloody and simply fantastic thrill ride that I cannot recommend highly enough. Any fan of well constructed thrillers (as well as many horror fans) who can stomach some notably gory moments will definitely want to make sure and check out ‘Green Room’ as soon as you have the opportunity to do so.
VIDEO:
The Blu-ray release of ‘Green Room’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty great as a whole, providing a sharp, detailed and relatively clean presentation that holds up impressively even during the numerous darkly lit and occasional fast moving sequences, never resulting in anything occurring on screen to become negatively affected, let alone rendered indiscernible. Overall, this is a pretty solid high definition video presentation that should generally please.
AUDIO:
The Blu-ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack provides a crisp, clean and often fairly aggressive audio presentation from start to finish. Utilizing all five available channels regularly in order to increase the tension by sending music, action effects or minimal background noises such as nature elements, along with bits of dialogue and more throughout the various speakers, and never resulting in any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, this is a highly capable 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that shouldn’t disappoint.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-ray release of ‘Green Room’ includes a couple of nice extras. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Jeremy Saulnier’, in addition to a behind the scenes Featurette ‘Into the Pit: Making Green Room’ (running approximately 10 minutes in length) which includes interviews/comments with the cast and crew and more.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
Film Rating: 9.5/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10
‘Green Room’ Arrives on Blu-ray & DVD July 12, 2016 from A24 & Lionsgate Home Entertainment
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