The Black Room

My review was written in March 1984 after a screening at Empire theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"The Black Room" is a pretentious, thoroughly unappealing horror picture whose poster and advertising promise a dark, sexy opus that does not materialize on screen. Filmed in January 1981, delayed release looks to grim box office.

The script by Norman Thaddeus Vane (who also takes a co-director credit) awkwardly meshes two separate stories: (1) Jason (Stephen Knight) is a California artist living with his beautiful model sister Bridget (Cassandra Gaviola). He suffers from a blood disease that requires replacement of his blood at least twice a week, and duo are given to ensnaring unwary young visitors in their mansion's Black Room, photographing their sex acts through a one-way mirror, and then killing them for their blood. Corpses are neatly buried in coffins in the garden.

(2): Larry (Jim Stathis) is a young married man having sexual problems with his wife Robin (Clara Perryman). Larry answers Jason's ad for a low-cost home in the Hollywood Hills and starts acting out his sexual fantasies in the Black Room with various women he picks up. Unbeknownst to him Jason and Bridget are killing his partners for their blood.

Absurd finale has both Jason and presumab;ly normal sister Bridget turning into zombies after Larry and Robin kill them, a supernatural tangent not justified by the preceding footage and guaranteed to anger a paying audience.

Film's sole highlight is a lengthy showcasint role for the exotically beautiful model-turned-actress Cassandra Gaviola (aka Gava), who later had small parts in "Conan the Barbarian", "Nighrt Shift" and "High Road to China". Casting of Stephen Knight. Who looks like an entirely different nationality, as Cassandra's brother is an error.

Technically, the film is sloppy, with frequent shots from the window side (peering into the Black Room) producing mirror images of the watcher. Picture is also an object lesson for itinerant filmmakers in how not to use the Steadicam.

Well, if nothing else, "The Black Room" at least deserves a few extra points for originality! In an era where most American horror were derivative and tepid slasher knock-offs, this film comes with a totally creative and unique (albeit utterly grotesque) storyline that is certainly trashier, sleazier and nastier than all those dull slashers. The protagonist of "The Black Room", a seemingly average middle-class guy named Larry, is a heroic role-model for all of use horny males! Dig this: because his sex life with his wife Robyn suffers from routine boredom and children always interrupting at the exact wrong moment, Larry invents a fantasy place - the black room - where he satisfies his sexual need with other women. He shares his lewd fantasies with Robyn in order to excite her, but Larry actually also does rent such a room for real! He picks up horny students and prostitutes like it's the most normal thing in the world and takes them to his secret for sweet-loving, while later that same night in the marital bed his wife whisper: "Tell me again about the black room, honey". Ha! Larry is awesome! What he doesn't know, however, is that the proprietors of the room, a very seductive brother and sister, are sick psychos that murder the lust objects in the black room and transfuse their blood into the brother's body because he supposedly has a rare blood disease! "The Black Room" obviously isn't an Award-winning masterpiece, but it sure is a compelling, unpredictable and darn hot 80s horror oddity! When Robyn discovers Larry's deceitful little secret, and plots her revenge together with houseowner Jason, the film resembles more of an early 70s European sexploitation movie rather than an 80s US horror flick; - especially with that randomly bonkers vampire twist-ending! He may only have made less than a handful of films, but the least you can say about writer and (co-) director Norman Thaddeus Vane is that he tried different things (see also "Frightmare" that was released one year later). Beautiful people in this film as well, both males and females. It's one of the earliest films of Christopher MacDonald and Linnea Quigley never looked prettier in her life.

Larry, a dashing family man, decides he needs some escapism in his life and rents a room to fulfill his darkest fantasies. The room he finds is within a Hollywood Hills mansion and is decorated seductively in black with lots of candles and drink. His doting wife goes along with the fantasy, but what she doesn't know (if you can believe it) is that the lurid tales of prozzies and pickups he's ravished in the room are actually true. And what Larry doesn't know is that the kooky siblings from whom he rents the "black room" are after blood and not his rent! This is a quirky and unique low-budget film that delivers in some areas. It manages to go from creepy to sizzling hot to awkwardly funny from scene to scene. The acting is excellent for a low budget-80s film, especially by the four relatively unknown leads. Jimmy Stathis (Larry) manages to pull off loving father and husband in some scenes and complete sleazeball in others. He's a character that is difficult to root for (and even watch at times), but thankfully he isn't the only protagonist in the film. His wife (played by the fantastic Clara Perryman) smiles and laughs along with Larry's kinky fantasies that don't involve her, which is an aspect of the story that comes across as silly considering she knows that he really does have this "black room." But once the story gets going and she becomes more involved with the plot, it's easy to get past this. The demented landlord sibs steal every scene they're in. Stephen Knight is believably lecherous and Cassandra Gava is both sexy and insane as his caretaker and BDSM-loving sister. The atmosphere, especially in the titular room, is eerie and alluring. The score is inventive and one of the movie's high points. So while some of the plot premises are a bit brow-raising, and the horror in the film didn't seem to fully lift off, this is an original and steamy genre movie in which I found enough things to enjoy. Look for Christopher McDonald and Linnea Quigley in small roles.

Damn, those good old days. This movie is something weird. It is made in 84, full slasher period. But this isn't a slasher, I even don't know were to place it. Face it, the first minutes all you see is nudity. Due the fact that it is an OOP it is even harder to see it unless you live over here in Europe were it became available as an freebee on the Bloodstained Romance DVD, but even that one is a hard to get already. So I thought, is this a soft erotic flick or what, because the cover is a nude girl looking towards a camera. After a while when a person hire a room, the black one, to cheat on his wife it becomes clear what it's all about, but again, first you will have to watch a nude girl dancing and doing weird stuff. It's when the tenant brings his first hooker with him that the film changes into a horror flick. Once his wife gets to know what the black room is it changes a bit into a revenge (sexual) movie. Again, weird scene's are shown, the score is creepy too and more and more you will get to know the why and who about the brother and sister hiring the black room. At the end you will be surprised again about the brother and sister...weird story, strange editing, creepy score ( a lot of delay on voices...). but the other reason why people want to see it is because Linnea Quigley is in it, but she's only 5 minutes in it and stays dressed. Still, worth watching.

The Black Room turned out to be an engrossing semi-masterpiece. I was expecting mundane from this forgotten horror, but what I saw was more kinky, twisted and sick than I'd imagined. Something about the acting, the script , the directing or everything was different than other films. It also has the most graffically depicted blood transfusions I've ever seen. They were painstakingly slow over these shots. I had to turn away....gallons of blood... It's a shame Clara Perryman didn't do much after this film. She was excellent and made the troubled relationship with her and Jim Stathis {also great} possibly more interesting than the horror elements. Linnea Quigley plays a small role as the babysitter. She says maybe 5 words.