The Black Room

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of The Black Room; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.25 Direction: 1.00 Pace: 0.75 Acting: 0.75 Enjoyment: 1.00

TOTAL: 4.75 out of 10.00

I do like a good vampyre story and love an original take on their mythology. The Black Room was so close to being both; sadly, it slightly misses the mark with both.

The story centres around two couples. Jason and Bridgette are a brother and sister living in the Hollywood hills. They make an extra buck or a hundred by renting out a room in their home for wayward spouses. The couple offers secrecy and privacy to do whatever their sleazy little heart desires. Enter Larry, a husband who likes to treat women like whores and hookers but cannot bring himself to treat his wife, Robin, in the same fashion, though she's willing. So he starts to fund Jason and Bridgette's lifestyle. But, how long can he keep the deception from the missus? And, what will she do when she finds out? The writer and director, Norman Vane, adds an even darker element into the mix. There's something not quite right with the owners of the black room. Vane unravels their secrets and sins as we progress through the narrative. Though his characterisations are decent, they needed to be better, because the story is primarily character-driven. Larry, Robin, and their family are credible. However, Jason and Bridgette required more substance. Granted, they are strange individuals, but there's something diaphanous about them, particularly Jason. His character demands to be more prolific and imposing. And the relationship he has with his sister craved more attention. In the beginning, you're unsure who these people are to one another. When we learn of their kinship, instead of the story becoming unclouded, it gets a tad muddier. The uncertainty halts the couple's growth and, in turn, hinders the story and the viewer's enjoyment.

Director Vane is comparable to Writer Vane. The filming suffers some of the same ailments as the scripting. Vane could have used some easy camera techniques the emphasise Jason's character. Always shoot him from at a slight upward angle, making him more imposing. Have the actor deliver his lines with more zest and zeal. Etc! But sadly, he merely points the camera and captures whatever's on offer. There are myriad opportunities to increase the audience's interest. All it would have taken is to get slightly creative with the filming - A few engaging pans, stimulating camera angles, and entrancing close-ups. Nothing too fancy or complicated. Just a taste of eye candy. The worst thing about the movie is the tempo. It's on the slow side and could have been faster overall and even faster at the kills to build the excitement and tension.

The cast is a mishmash. There are moments when each individual performer is respectable and times when they are below-par. Fortunately, they are never terrible in the same scenes, and they somewhat level out the unevenness of their performances.

I am unsure whether I would recommend The Black Room to anyone. As it stands, it's just okay but nothing special, though it easily could have been. If you see it on a streaming service, and there's nowt else worthy of your attention, then check it out. But if you miss it - don't worry, you're not missing much. Maybe Blumhouse can do a modern remake - it deserves the attention - and remove their hands from destroying the classics.

Turn on those bloody lights, or you won't be able to read my Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chiller lists and see where I ranked The Black Room.

Take Care & Stay Well.

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.

Jason and his sister Bridget have a nice home in the hills, and there is a special room that is available to rent. It is all black, with candles and other amenities that couples might find wonderful for special occasions. Jason has a genetic disorder, thalassemia, meaning his body does not produce enough hemoglobin, so he needs fresh blood. Larry is married to Robin, with two young children which really does not allow for much intimacy. Larry finds an ad for the room, and decides it is great but while it has spiced up their life, he assures Robin it is all in his mind. One day returning from shopping, Robin finds a crumbled up newspaper that has the ad, and finds keys in the glove compartment. She needs to investigate. And Jason needs more and more blood. Sets up the tension in the third act. It is fairly mediocre, and the colors are very strong, as were in many films of that period. The trysts are somewhat tame, and the blood 'donations' are quite fake.

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.

A man rents a room a brother & sister so he can have extramarital affairs away from his own house, however his landlords are draining the blood from everyone who enters the room.

An extremely dark and original take on the vampire genre. Set in the modern day (1981 when it was made) unlike many vampire movies of the time, the setting does give it much more credibility than its Gothic counterparts. The draining sequences are very dramatic, no fangs here but a massive machine which pumps out the blood into some very gory scenes. The performances are a lot better than you might think, the 4 leads are surprisingly good as is most of the supporting cast. The second half of the movie is great, tension mounts very well, the pace improves and the last 10-15mins are superb and quite scary at times. The film does have a couple of issues though, in the first half pacing is quite sluggish, as the set up sequences to key scenes take an age and at times fail at keeping the viewers attention, editing is also quite strange at the beginning (although that could just have been the copy I watched 1983 UK VHS).

Overall a very good surprising watch, if you enjoy weird fairly gory horror there should be plenty for you to enjoy here. Interestingly this quite rare horror was put onto the DPP's section 3 list here in the UK (meaning the police could seize it from the shelves), a real shame as this well made little horror didn't deserve the negative attention it got.