Sometimes all you need to make a great horror film is an uncomplicated premise, and for Green Room, it’s simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The tense and riveting new flick from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) follows a down-on-their-luck punk rock band (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner and Joe Coel) who gets a dodgy gig playing in a skinhead club in the backwoods of Oregon.
All goes well after a pretty sick set, but as the band prepares to leave, Pat (Yelchin) runs into the club’s green room to grab something– and witnesses an unspeakable act of violence. Shocked, Pat and the rest of the band, along with a hapless club patron (Imogen Poots), are forced into the green room to wait until “management” can figure things out.
That’s when club owner Darcy Banker (Patrick Stewart) shows up. He is a businessman, first and foremost, and he sees the situation as one he simply needs to clean up as quickly as possible. He brings in his skinhead flunkies – along with pit bulls, machetes and shotguns – to take care of things, but what he doesn’t expect is the resourcefulness of the kids inside the green room. From there it’s a showdown, and an incredibly brutal one at that.
At the recent press day for Green Room, which took place at the famous L.A. club, the Viper Room, we talked with Yelchin and Saulnier about making such a seat-clenching film, along with how the band bonded and just how amazing Patrick Stewart really is.
Hear what they had to say in the video above and be sure to catch Green Room as it’s now in theatres.