The Black Room (2017)

Sadly Over-hyped

Really Surprised!

Expected more

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Saw 'The Black Room', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching it.Unfortunately, despite not reading any reviews purposefully before watching, am going to have to agree that 'The Black Room' isn't too good, though not terrible. A film that started off reasonably well, but ran out of steam very quickly and rapidly got worse by a second half that makes one not want to keep watching. Never judge a film without seeing the whole thing and wanted to give 'The Black Room' a fair chance.'The Black Room's' best assets were the first fifteen-twenty minutes, no matter how relevant or not it was to what was to follow it started the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue. Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere. The setting is effectively spooky and the acting was better than average, with the lead average being quite good actually.However, so much brings 'The Black Room' down. The direction is so phoned in and pedestrian, one gets the sense that the director showed no interest in the film at all. Would have liked more chemistry between the actors, which can be put down to directing, tending to have interactions that are both static and awkward, and writing, which really doesn't flow, issues.Where 'The Black Room' most underwhelms is the writing and story. The writing is incredibly lazy, it's awkward in dialogue, very confused as a result of not tying things up or going into full detail and doesn't feel complete. The story suffers from a very limp pace after the first fifteen minutes and never recovers, so the film is a pretty dull experience.'The Black Room' further suffers from feeling too much like a short film stretched out with a lot of useless padding, too many things that don't make sense or under-explained (the twist on the evil-in-the-basement trope is indeed neat but that's it) and tiresome repetition. The characters are nowhere near interesting enough, and the inconsistent and illogical motivations bring them down. In 'The Black Room', there is very little interesting and nothing remotely scary. They are too few and are far too predictable, anaemic and weakly timed to make impact, with the dull pacing and obvious sound effects cheapening them significantly. It even includes comedic elements, that not only fitted very awkwardly with the rest of the atmosphere but it was also not funny, clever or well written, giving the sense that the film wasn't sure what it wanted to be and it makes the viewer unsure too. 'The Black Room' doesn't engage let alone thrill, the film started off very well but feels wasted by how quickly everything runs out of steam. The ending is an anti-climactic head-scratcher, like the script it feels incomplete and making sense of it was extremely difficult.Overall, mediocre but with good points that stop it from being worse. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Married couple Paul and Jennifer (Lukas Hassle and Natasha Henstridge) move into their dream home blissfully unaware that there is an incubus (a horny devil in more ways than one) trapped in the basement. When Paul accidentally frees the demon, he becomes possessed by the evil creature, which proceeds to seduce and kill those who cross its path.The Black Room begins two years earlier with Miss Black (Lin Shaye) woken in the night by the incubus, the monster somehow escaping its prison in the form of smoke (logic is not this film's strong point). While Miss Black screams at the monster, the invisible incubus enters the room where sexy granddaughter Dawn (Alex Rinehart) is sleeping, peels the duvet off her bed, removes her nightie, fondles her nipples, whips off her panties and gives her an orgasm. It's that kind of film.Dawn is then lured into the basement, where she is groped by slimy demonic hands before being roasted by a fiery blast from the furnace. So far, so tawdry and trashy.And so it continues, as Paul and Jennifer take ownership of the property, both keen to have sex as soon as possible in their new home, but unable to find the right time. The demon finds a way to keep them both happy, however, using its powers to satisfy Jennifer in the bath and give Paul head while he relaxes in bed.The horror begins after Paul unwittingly releases the incubus, and becomes possessed, with several people meeting sticky fates: electrician Oscar is dragged into the 'black room', leaving behind his severed fingers; Jennifer's goth sister Karen (Augie Duke) has her mouth torn open by the rapey incubus's schlong; plumber Leo has his head crushed in a washing machine door by the undead Karen; and housewarming guests Howard (Caleb Scott) and Stacy (Dominique Swain) wind up in the basement as demon food.Eventually, Jennifer realises the truth and attempts to rid her husband of the incubus (using a metal disc with a glowing 'eye') before the creature can be reborn, none of which makes much sense. Despite a reasonable cast (Henstridge, Swain, and Shaye are deserving of much better), the film amounts to little more than some cheap titillation, a touch of not-very-impressive gore, and lots of really bad visual effects.3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for Henstridge making her washing machine blow up. Way to go!

Paul (Lukas Hassle) and Jennifer (Natasha Henstridge) move into a house that has an incubus trapped in the basement, a sexual demon. Sister (Augie Duke) comes to visit, etc. etc. Tiffany Shepis, Lin Shaye, and Dominique Swain in minor roles.The opening credits played an Emerson Lake and Palmer cover tune which got me hooked. The film was like a cross between "Evil Toons" and "Re-Animator." The production excelled when it was being funny and flopped when it took itself too seriously. A Zelda Rubinstein impersonator taking care of the issue would have been great.Guide: F-word, sex, nudity

"The Black Room" starts out at a very good pace and puts the audience into the action from the very beginning. Personally I do like that, especially since sitting for close to an hour whilst the movie is Building up atmosphere and setting the scene can be somewhat tedious. So being through right into the action is always a refreshing change of pace for a horror movie.The intro sequence, I must take a moment to address that, because it was so out of place with the rest of the movie. Especially because it felt more like a 1970s psychedelic hallucinatory dream high on drugs, and topped off with some odd disco-inspired upbeat music. But about 45 minutes or so into the movie, then that intro actually makes sense.The effects in "The Black Room" were rather impressive, and visually they were quite convincing. So the special effects and CGI effects team really did a good job in bringing the effects to life on the screen. But the scene where Paul was getting electrocuted in the basement was not the most convincing of scenes due to the questionable effects.Personally I don't really get the whole thing with hands reaching out from the back for the characters in the movie repeatedly. It was okay the first and second time, but kind of got a bit too repetitive after that.There is a focus on sexual tones in "The Black Room", which was done adequately enough without crossing the threshold and slipping into being sleazy. But taking into consideration that the movie does deal with a demonic incubus entity, the sexual undertones of the movie do make good enough sense."The Black Room" actually has some pretty good names to the cast ensemble. Sure, this is not Oscar winning material, but if you have watched horror movies before, then you should be more than familiar with the likes of Lin Shaye, Dominique Swain and Natasha Henstridge. Lin Shaye had a very small role to play in "The Black Room", which was a shame, because she usually brings a lot to a movie with her mere presence. Natasha Henstridge actually carried the movie quite well, and it was nice to see her back in the horror genre. It was also quite a hoot to see James Duval making an appearance in this movie, despite also only being in a minor role.Once the movie takes on a possession aspect, there is also an element of comedy added to the movie, which actually sat quite well with the other aspects of the movie. Especially since the comedy was subtle and quite well used.While this is listed as a horror movie, it is not the type of horror movie that will leave the audience trembling with dread and fear. It is an entertaining enough movie for what it was, but there are better choices if you prefer to be scared witless. "The Black Room" is, however, a rather different kind of horror movie and one that actually was entertaining enough for what it turned out to be.