Saulnier's follow-up to Blue Ruin is every bit as thrilling

Rating: 9/10 (3 April 2017)

GREEN ROOM is director Jeremy Saulnier's follow-up to the excellent BLUE RUIN, a low key thriller that came out nowhere to become one of my favourite American films of recent times. The good news is that this follow-up, despite being more action-packed and visceral, is every bit as good as BLUE RUIN and even more violent, if that's even possible.
The story is quite standard here and more predictable than in BLUE RUIN, but the emphasis is on visceral thrills instead and on that basis it doesn't disappoint. The characters are somewhat unlikeable although Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots do grow on you as the story progresses, mainly through their refusal to give in to their oppressors. Said bad guys are a pack of Neo-Nazis led by a quietly frightening Patrick Stewart. The first 20 minutes aren't very interesting, but after a plot twist it remains exciting right up until the climax, just like a classic such as Walter Hill's SOUTHERN COMFORT.
The single location setting is brought to the fore here by Saulnier's expert and claustrophobic direction. The violence is intense, extremely graphic, and completely disturbing with it. It's not a big blow 'em up adventure story, it's just as dark, gritty, and realistic as BLUE RUIN was, in which things never go according to plan and innocent people always get hurt. It's a mini-masterpiece of a film, and one of the most suspenseful I've seen in ages.