The Black Room

This is simply a gawd awful film. There's not a believable character to be found, let alone empathize with. Generally I'm one to watch a movie to it's end once I've started it and this one was no exception. It was a complete 94 minute waste of time. The plot is hardly original but it could have (and has been) done much, much better than it is here. I've loved the horror genre ever since watching Bela Lugosi in Dracula as a kid many many years ago. There is absolutely no horror, or even a good fright, in this flick. How it's gotten any rating on here higher than a 2 is beyond me.

The Black Room is advertised as a horror comedy, sadly it's very badly lacking in one area and therefore makes for an oddly imbalanced movie.

Telling the story of a couple moving into a new house with a storied past. In the basement is a black room housing an incubus. For those aware of what an incubus is you probably won't be surprised to hear that the film is jam packed with sex and nudity from start to finish to rather gratuitous levels.

With a fantastic cast including Natasha "Species" Henstridge, Dominique Swain and horror icons Lin Shaye and Tiffany Shepis it certainly had the tools to deliver a competent movie.

Sadly this is again where I must come back to the poor blend of comedy and horror. The movie has very little comedy so when humor is attempted it feels very out of place especially considering that the rest of the film is played like a straight horror. Sure it's a tad cheesy but it's still a full on horror film so the brief moments of levity spoil it.

So what with the poor tone balance, amateurish cgi effects (They should have stuck with practical) and a bad story delivery The Black Room will likely appeal to horny teens more than horror enthusiasts.

Not irredeemable, but I'd certainly not recommend this to anyone.

The Good:

Natasha Henstridge

The addition of couple of scream queens for cameos

Solid cast

The Bad:

Really weird balance of comedy and horror

Some really pants sfx

"The Black Room" starts out at a very good pace and puts the audience into the action from the very beginning. Personally I do like that, especially since sitting for close to an hour whilst the movie is Building up atmosphere and setting the scene can be somewhat tedious. So being through right into the action is always a refreshing change of pace for a horror movie.

The intro sequence, I must take a moment to address that, because it was so out of place with the rest of the movie. Especially because it felt more like a 1970s psychedelic hallucinatory dream high on drugs, and topped off with some odd disco-inspired upbeat music. But about 45 minutes or so into the movie, then that intro actually makes sense.

The effects in "The Black Room" were rather impressive, and visually they were quite convincing. So the special effects and CGI effects team really did a good job in bringing the effects to life on the screen. But the scene where Paul was getting electrocuted in the basement was not the most convincing of scenes due to the questionable effects.

Personally I don't really get the whole thing with hands reaching out from the back for the characters in the movie repeatedly. It was okay the first and second time, but kind of got a bit too repetitive after that.

There is a focus on sexual tones in "The Black Room", which was done adequately enough without crossing the threshold and slipping into being sleazy. But taking into consideration that the movie does deal with a demonic incubus entity, the sexual undertones of the movie do make good enough sense.

"The Black Room" actually has some pretty good names to the cast ensemble. Sure, this is not Oscar winning material, but if you have watched horror movies before, then you should be more than familiar with the likes of Lin Shaye, Dominique Swain and Natasha Henstridge. Lin Shaye had a very small role to play in "The Black Room", which was a shame, because she usually brings a lot to a movie with her mere presence. Natasha Henstridge actually carried the movie quite well, and it was nice to see her back in the horror genre. It was also quite a hoot to see James Duval making an appearance in this movie, despite also only being in a minor role.

Once the movie takes on a possession aspect, there is also an element of comedy added to the movie, which actually sat quite well with the other aspects of the movie. Especially since the comedy was subtle and quite well used.

While this is listed as a horror movie, it is not the type of horror movie that will leave the audience trembling with dread and fear. It is an entertaining enough movie for what it was, but there are better choices if you prefer to be scared witless. "The Black Room" is, however, a rather different kind of horror movie and one that actually was entertaining enough for what it turned out to be.

I watched about close to an hour of this trash and just couldn't watch it any more. I heard it was so bad it's good, and I have watched a fair few of the b movies they live up to that standard sadly this one didn't. The acting was terrible I have no idea if it that was intentional or not given the talents from the cast my guess is bad direction. There was no straight forward plot to keep you intrigued , a simple plot line to follow would have made a difference, all I know is a couple bought a house without inspecting it weird things happen for no reason that's about it. I heard it was supposed to be a parody or comedic elements , there was nothing funny at all apart from the bad acting. Dont go by the 9s and 10s of this, it is so bad it is actually bad.

A young couple (Natasha Henstridge and Lukas Hassle) moves into the house of their dreams which quickly becomes a living nightmare when they discover a dark secret awaiting them in the cellar.

This film is getting some awful reviews. And yes, indeed, it is not a great movie. But look at it for what it is. I think Rolfe Kanefsky succeeds in what he set out to do -- get together a large handful of genre stars and get them to make a somewhat scandalous horror film.

Honestly, there are far, far worse films out there, especially in the horror genre. This one at least redeems itself by having a sense of humor. And yes, it is more smutty than I typically appreciate in a film, but that is exactly what it set out to be. So I can understand mixed feelings, but the overly negative responses seem harsh.