Room 205

Apparently the Danish can make subpar J-horror movies too. Room 205 features stock characters, a mish-mash plot and almost zero suspense leading to an abrupt and clumsily-paced climax. The ghost and its appearances are more eyebrow-furrowing than scary and at about the hour mark you'll start to wonder if this is actually a horror film or a movie about angsty Danish college kids - Degrassi Copenhagen if you will. The acting is passable but it takes so long to go anywhere that you end up not caring for a single person in the film. This is definitely one of the more disappointing flicks in GHI's 2008 batch. Only recommended for hardcore ghost story fans with nothing else left to watch.

(2008) Room 205/ Kollegiet (In Danish with English subtitles) HORROR

Female teenage student, Katrine (Neel Rønholt) whose just moved into a University dorm and while their start to receive flashbacks that's related to an urban legend about a previous female student death that is somehow connected with the dorm of "Room 205"- hence the title! The audience is being kept in the dark about what happened until near the end! Inconsistent and conventional horror film with coincidences which lacks credibility raising a lot of questions without answering them, such as "what makes this typical normal student chosen to be the one to get flashbacks from the dead girl without affecting any of the others whose stayed their longer than she has?", "What became of the other people who were their when this death occurred to the dead girl who was once alive?" and finally "How or ever were there was ever was a cover up?"

When you decide to watch a film like 'Kollegiet', you need to get your expectations clear. The horror genre DOES have a lot of clichés, but what differences does it make if it works? 'Kollegiet' is not a horror film with tons of blood and ripped off limbs, but a lurking and highly unpleasant horror flick, which gives you everything you need as a horror fan.

The story about the ghost in the mirror we know from such films as 'Candyman' and the ghost itself is clearly inspired by the Japanese horror style. By the first look it sounds like cheep recycling, but 'Kollegiet' ends up being one of a kind. The chocks are lurking in the dark and opposite other horror films, this Danish horror flick sends out the chocks in such unexpected moments that you'll be finding yourself screaming and jumping while shouting "F**K!!!". The blurred camera-work makes it even more spooky and atmospheric, and it all leads to some of the most unpleasant chocks I haven't seen in any horror film besides 'The Grudge' about three years ago. Comparing with the Danish so called horror film 'Midsommer', which was let down by a boring script and lousy acting, 'Kollegiet' does the job extremely well.

The actors are doing it surprisingly well, and give a trustful picturing of an ordinary day on s student hostel. Sweetheart Neel Rønholt shines in the role of Katrine, which gets another kind of stay than she expected (but of course we – the audience – knows better…). The high age of the additional cast, ex. Mira Wanting and Mikkel Arndt (29-30), is not a problem during watching the film.

Bad reviews or not. 'Kollegiet' is within no doubt one of the best and most effective Danish horror films in a long time – if not ever. It does exactly what a horror film needs to do: It scares the crap out of you!

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

Danish supernatural horror following the style of the recent Asian ghost story crop? Quite possibly. 'Room 205' isn't too bad, but fairly an uninspired minor effort on all fronts with the college dramas (outcast---fitting in with in-crowd) taking centre stage, as the slow-moving ghost story feels secondary. When this side of the story begins to push along it's rather straight-forward with a nasty little back-story (told in flashback later on) behind the evil entity. Even the stringy concept about souls being trapped in mirrors is an interesting touch, which was done better in the little more complex Korean horror film 'Into the Mirror' (that got an American revamp in 2008; 'Mirrors'). In all, the old-hat story is kind of flat and threadbare with clichéd build-ups and scares, but at least coherent in its progress and considerably depressing in tone. Too bad it ends on not a redundant, but lame cheap shock ending. Something a little more haunting would have worked better. In these cases it's what you call all style, little substance. The slick direction proves it with the flashed up visuals, broodingly dour illustrations and effectively instrumented atmospheric sound work caught within a cramp, gloomy dormitory. Juddering editing and camera-work seems to be used around the minimal special effects and sped up jolts which are competently pulled off. The make-up of the ghost is slender and a little bit of splatter doesn't go astray either. The performances were a lot better than expected and one of the film's main staying power. The endearingly sympathetic Neel Rønholt is strong enough in the central role and Julie Ølgaard is potently good as the spitefully, stuck-up antagonist. Moderately creepy, but systematically plotted and forgettable.