Review of The Killing Room (2009) by Oleg K — 31 Aug 2011

Despite boasting an impressive cast list, The Killing Room reeks of straight to dvd hell.

Chloe Sevigny is some FBI style wunderkind observing a top secret division presided over by a spooky guy in a suit. What she sees is 4 individuals locked into a room, answer a bunch of questions before one of them gets shot in the head as the beginning of an elimination process.

It's a premise which worked quite well in the similarly themed Exam but one which doesn't deliver upon it's promise here. The titular room isn't like those found in Cube, and doesn't really contain any surprises......at least, it thinks it does, but they're no surprises to the viewer.

The film is hampered by it's budgetary restraints. It's difficult to hear what the characters are saying from time to time and the grim and gritty cinematography looks like it's the results of not being able to afford proper lighting.

Chloe Sevigny, normally a wholly reliable supporting actress, looks as bored and befuddled through out the film as we are, while the in room participants count Clea Duvall and Shea Whigham amongst their ranks, and while these two aren't bad, they're not up to their usual standards.

The film flits between concentrating on what's going on outside and inside the room without ever engaging in any proper dynamic for either and not conveying Sevigny's torn loyalties at all......just her looks of boredom.

The final scene does have a Saw style twist to it which is cool but it's the classic case of too little, too late. It seems like the film was almost written backwards to get to this point but twists only work if you've been sucked into what's preceded them and in the case of The Killing Room, we haven't.

The Killing Room feels like it was knocked together in a bout a week by a few folk who had a bit of time to fill but probably should have just taken a short holiday.