Neo-Nazi Panic Room Film

Rating: 4/10 (18 July 2016)

Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Alpha Dog) gives a final performance as a hunted man in this tense, low budget thriller. A punk band books a gig at a white supremacist compound in rural Oregon. Pressure mounts after they inadvertently become witnesses to a murder and lock themselves in a room as they plan an escape. This picture made official selection at Sundance.
It's Beaufort meets American History X. Imogen Poots (V for Vendetta, Filth) co-stars as a "good" Nazi on the wrong (or right) side of the door, with Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Search Party) as a hardcore musician in danger. They piece de resistance was Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men) as the leader of the neo-Nazi skinheads. That's good casting. Patrick Stewart has an unmistakable voice and a super-Anglo-Saxon way and he's great in everything he's in.
With tragic irony, the late actor was running from death. In real life, Yelchin was Russian Jew, hence the "Anton," which is less of a common name in the United States. It must have been super intense for him to act out being hunted by Nazis during production.
The plot definitely has its holes. The main one is the fact that the skins, who have the kids outnumbered and surrounded, opt to fall back and send in a few wannabe stormtroppers and dogs. There were half-baked subplots that didn't go anywhere. This film could have used a few rewrites. It's a twist on the panic room subgenre.
Places like this exist in real life, especially in the pacific northwest and the north. The best line was "I want him to die with the taste of meat in his teeth," or something like that, of an attack dog. In the ultimate punk rock move, the band opens with "Nazi Punks F--k Off!" by the Dead Kennedys in a room full of skinheads. Goons.