Like many, I was shocked to hear of the passing of Anton Yelchin in 2016, him having died at only twenty seven years old. Having seen him in a number of projects I found him to be a very good actor, and wanted to see more of the work that he'd left behind. I'm a little ashamed to say that it took me until this month to finally watch one of his more notable films, 2015's Green Room. I'd heard amazing things about it, particularly both his and Patrick Stewarts acting, but had never brought myself to watch it; perhaps in part to the subject matter of the film. With the new 4k Ultra-HD release from Second Sight Films I've finally corrected that oversight, and found myself wishing I'd watched it years before.
Green Room follows the journey of a young punk band, the Ain't Rights, as they travel around the country, barely able to keep fuel in their van, playing one crappy gig after another. After an interview with a small town radio host they're offered to play in a remote bar in Portland, but upon arrival they discover that they're in a neo-Nazi skinhead bar, and are opening for a Nazi band. They decide to go ahead with the gig anyway, needing the money, and decide to get out of there as soon as they're off stage. However, when Pat, played by Yelchin, returns to the green room to grab his bandmates phone he walks into a murder.
The Nazis running the bar shove the rest of the band into the green room and take them hostage as they deal with the police in order to cover up the stabbing. Knowing that there's no way that they're going to be let go the band overpower the man left watching them and barricade themselves in the green room. Thus begins a tense fight for survival between the band and a bar full of neo-Nazi's who want them dead.
To say that Green Room is a tense film is something of an understatement. From the moment the Ain't Rights enter the remote bar the film becomes nerve-wracking. The only thing that I knew before watching the film was that Patrick Stewart played the leader of a gang of neo-Nazi's, I didn't know that the band were going to see a murder, or that it would become a room under siege type of story, and as such I was waiting for something bad to happen almost immediately. But even when something terrible did happen it didn't help to lessen the tension of the film. The scenes with the band trapped inside their small room, trying to figure out how they're going to escape whilst the Nazi's are outside, preparing weapons and bringing in attack dogs were almost as disturbing as any violence that happens in the film.
Part of the reason why the film is so terrifying is that it's very frighteningly real. Green Room deals with a very real horror. It doesn't rely on ghosts or monsters, things that you will never actually encounter in real life, but instead it thrusts you into a situation that you could realistically find yourself in. Bigotry is a very real thing, and it's a very real danger. There are open and proud Nazi's in the world, people who embrace hatred and revel in the harm that they can bring to others. And as someone who is in one of the groups that they would happily kill in an instant the fear of Nazi violence is a very real one.
And just like in real life, the antagonists of this film cannot be reasoned with. They won't back down, they won't show mercy, because they're staunch in their beliefs. They believe that they're in the right and that their violence is justified. And that is horrifying. Perhaps it's because I'm a person that has been the target of hate crimes more than once, who's in a group that the people in Green Room would brutalise, but this quickly became one of the most disturbing and frightening films I've ever seen.
It helps that the actors sell the film so amazingly too. Yelchin and his bandmates, played by Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner, run through a gamut of emotions, from terror, to defiance, to despair. Each actor delivers a powerful performance as their characters are trapped inside the green room, realising that there's no way out that doesn't involve horrific violence, and that if they don't kill they'll die themselves. Imogen Poots joins them as Amber, the girlfriend of one of the neo-Nazi's who saw the murder and is also a target. More weary and resigned to her fate than the others, she understands the violence that's going to come, accepts that blood will be spilled and that not all of them will make it out alive. Her performance is one of the more interesting in the film, for as the others begin to lose hope she has the opposite journey, and begins to believe that maybe she might survive.
The neo-Nazi's, on the other hand, are a fascinating part of the film. There are several in the film who take important roles, each of which shows a different side to this kind of group. The film has a few named characters that are what people would think of as neo-Nazis. Big Justin, played by Eric Edelstein, is a bruiser, a brute of a man who holds the band and Amber hostage, using hostility and fear as his main weapons. He's violent and vile. Kai Lennox plays Clark, a man who trains attack dogs for the group. He's a quiet, more insidiously sinister man, a man who loves his dogs and cares for their safety, but thinks nothing of commanding them to rip a persons throat out if told to do so. Gabe, played by Macon Blair, is the most unusual of the Nazis in the film, as over the course of the movie you begin to see him not as a raging bigot like the others, someone willing to kill and die for the cause. He's more of a person who was radicalised by a cult, but isn't truly evil himself. Whilst this doesn't erase his crimes or his actions his story does show that the villains of the film aren't all just cartoonish parodies of cruelty, but complex and realistic people.
Darcy, played by Stewart, is the bar owner, and the overall leader of the group. He's the most outwardly normal, the most charming. He's been a Nazi most of his life and knows how to project a front of normalcy to hide his hate. There are moments in the film where his appeals to end things peacefully, a ruse, almost wins the protagonists over thanks to his eloquence and tone. However, this is masking a cruel and terrifying man who's willing and determined to do whatever it takes to protect his people and his ideological movement. This makes him the most terrifying character in the film, as he's what a lot of bigots are like, the ones who are able to blend in, working in the background, pushing to destroy lives all whilst being seen as decent people.
Green Room was a film that I watched in the middle of the day, yet felt more disturbed than by than when I'd watched horror films alone at night. It got under my skin and made me feel sick. It didn't matter that it was a beautiful looking film, that director Jeremy Saulnier had captured some beautiful locations or written a deep and complex study on the kinds of people that end up in a hate movement, even if he never makes them sympathetic. During that first moment all I could focus on was the way the film made me feel. I felt dirty. I felt despair. I felt afraid. The world is becoming an ever increasingly scary place for a lot of people, and as a trans person I feel that fear. I've started to be the victim of hate crimes once again after years of none. Politicians are pushing for removals of rights and healthcare. Trans people are being murdered and people are openly celebrating it on social media. Nazis are openly going to anti-trans hate rallies. A very famous children's author just this last week engaged in holocaust revisionism in order to attack trans people. I'm becoming more and more frightened by the world, and Green Room tapped into that fear. I don't know if it will do the same for others, I can't say it will have the same effect if you're say a cis white straight person, but I think this film will still disturb, even if you're not the target of Nazi hate.
The new release comes with a number of extra features, including a pair of audio commentaries. The first is one from previous releases featuring writer/director Jeremy Saulnier, whilst the second is a brand new one featuring movie and genre experts. The other extras include the making-of featurette that was included on older versions, along with a host of new features. New interviews with cast and crew add some much needed and interesting behind the scenes looks at the film, and the passage of time between the movie and these new extras give them an interesting angle as those being interviewed seem to be talking more candidly and with the space of years in which to have thought about the film, rather than just promoting it as seems to sometimes happen with extras filmed closer to release times. The limited edition also comes with a slipcase featuring some new artwork, six art cards, and a 120 page book filled with essays on the film (sadly I did not have access to the book).
Green Room was a film that I'd heard about a lot, yet knew little of. It was always recommended, almost spoken about in hushed whispers. It was talked about as this almost mythic film. And I get that now. I understand why people can't say much about the film other than 'it's amazing' or 'you need to see it'. A film filled with powerhouse performances, it would be a terrifying film to watch at any time, but with the ever increasing spread of far right beliefs and a resurgence of Nazism it may be more relevant now than ever.
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