Black Room

Although I was an avid thriller movie fan in high school when this came out, it somehow escaped me. Upon hearing of it for the first time recently, I watched it and was pleasantly surprised by its overall good quality, handsome/well dressed leading men and moody score.

This is primarily a psychological thriller with an intelligent script and a deliberate pace. The writer, director and cast accurately depict the bored, horny husband looking for kicks and the tearful wife who becomes a hard, bitter feminist as a result. Thrown into the mix are a pair of siblings whose hilltop mansion is something of a spider's web for the unlucky.

Although other reviewers found the film to be sleazy and raunchy, this reviewer considers the smut scenes to be quite tame. Curiously, most of the coupling is done woman-on-top, save one very brief interlude between a college punk and the bitter, weepy wife. Had this been released primarily in Europe, it probably would have done well; American audiences, on the contrary, tend to be much less sophisticated and patient. Americans love farce and other forms of low-brow comedy, usually favoring the ridiculous. "The Black Room" however, is at its core a serious character study with a few dabs of horror thrown in towards the end.

Worth a look for adults interested in "grown up horror".

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.

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.

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.

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.