Room 205

Room 205 (Kollegiet): Danish Horror. Katrine moves into a student residence in Copenhagen, her dorm is run by a clique. Their domineering games and power plays are like something from Dangerous Liaisons. Twenty years ago a girl died in mysterious circumstances in the dorm. Katrine starts to have worrying dreams and when the clique play a trick on her she smashes a mirror releasing the angry ghost. The bullying at times is almost as bad as the supernatural horror, a few people exerting control over others. But when the ghost gets going not Just Katrine but also the bullies become aware of it's existence and it's power to affect things in the materiel world. It starts off with poltergeist effects but soon blood is spilled and then the ghost begins to pick people off. Some horrific scenes as lifts and mirror shards are used to dispatch the students. The ghost herself is well imagined and quite terrifying as appears in mirrors and lifts. Mundane and mondo horror mix in this intriguing piece. Directed by Martin Barnewitz and written by Jannik Tai Mosholt. On Netflix. 7/10.

Rating based on US DVD of Room 205 (Kollegiet), not the original version. I'd rate this higher, but apparently Ghosthouse Underground doesn't trust the audience to be literate enough to read subtitles. What would have been a very good horror film was ruined by overdubbing the original dialogue with English. It's not the 70s anymore, trust the audience to be able to follow subtitles. The vocal performances are lost under new, studio polished American voices, which takes away from the quality of the film. It's a shame, because it's nice to have a film based on fear, not gore. It's not a perfect film, and I wasn't scared, but it made me want to see more from this cast and director.

But shame on Ghosthouse Underground for overdubbing! I know they've ruined Vikaren (The Substitute) based on the overdubbed trailer at the beginning of this DVD. I've seen that subtitles, and I shudder to think of how they ruined that one.

So know if you rent this, you aren't going to get the full benefit of the original film.

OK so I pluralized friend, actually it was just one friend of mine who had seen this movie with his girlfriend who told me to go watch this with my girlfriend. The reason he thought I should see it was because him and his girlfriend really enjoyed it, plus he said he thought it was a really "scary" movie.

Well I took his suggestion for a Saturday night when me and the misses didn't have anything to do but go see a movie. I thought it could be cool to be scared and if it would make my girl happy so much the better. Well of course the evening was a bust because this movie could not deliver the goods... at all.

I wouldn't dream of spoiling but I think a lot of comments here hits the mark pretty well. The story is so void of originality I thought it was a joke and I kept thinking if this actually was an authorized remake of (insert 20-30 films here).

The story is so done first of all and second, elements are thrown into the movie every where without ever being justified. out of the 5 actors only 2 are able to do a halfway decent job, the main character and the actor Mira Wanting actually pull it off alright. Especially Mira actually gets something out of her character with a few subtle looks and faces here and there she creates a little intensity.

I don't blame the director for this movie at all, actually he shows a lot of promise but with no script for it he can't create the creepy atmosphere that he really does strive for. I just saw what other movies the writer of this one has written and I can see a pattern, in the future I'll be sure to avoid Jannik Tai's written movies, or at the very least, not expect an original idea or thought from him.

Yeah, on the whole, this is a lesser version of said recent classic in the genre. However, let's dig deeper. Please ignore the votes of 1; I don't know if it's bias or an unwillingness to judge something fairly if they didn't like it that caused them, but objectively speaking, this could be far worse. The technical aspect is, in fact, quite expertly done. Editing, cinematography, the sound, the score, all excellent. The FX are pretty convincing. This builds atmosphere rather well, getting immensely creepy and intense when it goes for such. It only goes for that, though; the plot is severely underdeveloped, essentially unoriginal(as I already mentioned) and clearly merely exists to stage the terror(which, again, is great). There are scenes that serve no purpose other than to add more fear-inducing stuff(the utterly gratuitous dream sequences, for example). In one bit, a couple of people are laughing in the sort-of background, and it gets to be excessive(no one goes on for *that* long), and it costs credibility, as does the one-note, single-trait(innocent, "evil", two-faced, etc.) characters(with what can be a seriously messed up logic). See, I would argue that the acting in this is good, and they(particularly the leads) certainly tend to be natural; they simply aren't allowed to truly explore their roles. I think all of this goes for many of our mainstream productions. Every conclusion about the ghost is reached by guesswork, yet it guides numerous of their actions. This underlines the issue that they don't reveal much about it; while mystery is not a bad thing, you can't expect it to have an impact when what the protagonist is doing lacks a solid basis. In as straightforward a story as this, the audience should never ask "why" someone we're meant to side with is doing what they're doing. There are other gaping holes. The nonexistent fleshing out keeps us from caring when anyone dies. Near the ending, it gets even worse. The very last shot is cheap, sacrificing a chunk of the value of the overall concept for a jump-scare that makes little sense. This could have been an excellent drama-thriller about closed social environments, or an effective piece of supernatural horror. All it had to do was make a choice of what to be, instead of promising both and not completely delivering on either(if you think it succeeds as the latter, try re-watching it, and pick out all the filler and the portions that don't pay off). What we get is a film of two mismatched halves, and you can easily tell where they crudely overlap. Wasted potential. Please, guys, get a better script next time. Perhaps the US remake will improve it. On the plus side, this features a couple of *hawt* chicks, including Rønholt and Mira Wanting(known from Hvide Løgne, or White Lies). There is some disturbing content, bloody and gory violence and sexuality in this. The DVD comes with an informative and interesting commentary track(by the sound guy, the photographer, Neel and director), a 23 minute well-done and fun behind the scenes production, a theatrical trailer and a teaser. I recommend this to fans of those who made it and/or the idea. 5/10

I just saw this and was greatly disappointed because I love horror movies, and this one sucked so bad. The acting is inept, the plot non-existent even for horror. It is just a Danish rip-off of recent brilliant Japanese horror such as The Ring and Dark Water. However, these movies keeps you guessing and being interested in what is going to happen towards the end. I simply walked out from this movie after about an hour because I didn't care anymore what would happen. The script of this movie is extremely pathetic. I have two degrees from KUA in English and it is nothing like described in this movie. I don't mean in terms of good and bad, I just mean it was an extremely odd description of KUA, and it didn't ring a bell with me at all although I have spent 8 years there. I have never tried living in a dormitory but I doubt it is anything like described in the movie. The use of a mirror in the movie was extremely effective but, all things being equal, I don't think this is a coherent movie at all. It is just random scenes cut together to try and scare (and bore) the audience. In the cinema in Lyngby (a small town) where I watched this tonight there were two women who were screaming all the time in the scary scenes. And they are indeed scary. But this is just an imitation of Japanese horror, and it is a pity that Martin Barnewitz(!?) did not either just make a movie of 90 minutes "terror" or put in a decent story.