Review of Room 205 (2007) by Martin C — 09 Sep 2012

Kollegiet (Martin Barnewitz, 2007).

Kollegiet, on the other hand (q.v. White review above), would seem to impart to us the lesson that the Occident should not attempt to make Asian horror movies at all. Not that I was really expecting much better from Barnewitz, who was tabbed to direct the (awful) Messengers sequel a couple of years ago, but Kollegiet, released in English-speaking countries under the title Room 205, is so standard that it almost seems as if one of the hackier Asian horror directors (Takashi Shimizu?) wrote a draft of a How to Make an Asian Horror Film for Dummies book, Barnewitz got his hands on a copy before anyone bothered to revise it, and he followed it to the letter. The problem being, of course, that since there's nothing new here, the movie comes off as a pale (pardon the pun) remake of some other generic Asian horror movie you saw a few years ago, but can't quite remember.

The movie does have a plot, if a light one: Katrine (After the Wedding's Neel Rønholt), a provincial young woman, goes to college in Copenhagen, looking for something more insteresting than her usual small-town existince. What she finds, unfortunately, is a rather cliquish bunch of kids in her dorm who seem to be led by Sanne (Julie R. Ã~lgaard, recently of Headhunters). Of course, things get worse when Katrine finds herself attracted to Rolf (Yours Forever's Mikkel Arendt), a former member of the clique (and romantic entanglement for Sanne, of course) who is now outcast. Needless to say, there's a Dark Secret(TM) to be had, and a Vengeful Long-Haired Spirit(TM) who is loosed on the crew as a result of an accident, and...

Do I need to tell you more? Because you've seen it. Dozens of times, probably, if you're a fan of Asian horror at all. But where even mediocre Asian horror films at least get the basic stuff rightâ"continuity, coherence, a decent amount of atmosphereâ"Kollegiet expects of its viewers that its existence will be enough. Sadly, it is not. **.