"The Black Room" (2010)

Rating: NR

Genre: Horror

Directed By: Rolfe Kanefsky

Written By: Rolfe Kanefsky

Released: April 28^th, 2017 

Runtime: 91 minutes

Studio: Cleopatra Entertainment

Summary:

A man and his wife (Natasha Henstridge) move into a home where an entity that feeds off lust and desire plans to destroy the world.

Review:

Oh wow. I don’t even know where to start with this. Trashy doesn’t even begin to describe this wanna-be horror show.

The saying “Show, Don’t Tell”, while wise words on paper for the majority of films in the world, it does not do anything for this film. When it comes to horror, I think the saying should be altered to “Imply, Don’t Show”. This film does not know what suspense means. I think it would be fair to say that it tried too hard. A lot of the gore and “scares” were so in your face, so over-complicated and so overdone that it became tacky and laughable.

Was this film trying to be sexy? I feel somewhat foolish for even asking, but I’m genuinely curious if this was the makers’ intention?? The whole plot revolves around this sex-crazed demon so a lot of the scenes involved the main characters inadvertently getting it on with, well, nothing…At least that the audience could see. THAT WAS NOT THE PART TO “IMPLY”. It did nothing for shaping a decent opinion of the actors’ performances. The makers of this can’t honestly believe any of those scenes were erotic? It’s a joke. A joke that made the film even more laughable. Again, like the gore, they were so in your face and so overdone. LESS IS MORE. Always. I cannot stress that enough. Less is more.

I think the main problem here is how much emphasis was put on the gore and sex scenes over the actual plot of the story. That’s never, ever a good idea with horror films. Sure, the gore is all well and fine, but if there’s no good story to back up these scenes, where are you going at all? I mean, the dialogue in this? Fail! I also hate it when horror films try to establish the fact that this is supposed to be scary, before establishing the characters. Again, never a good idea. Don't tell us we're supposed to be scared, it just comes off as desperate and tacky. I'm referring to the opening scene. We hadn't yet met any of the characters and didn't know what we were in for. Then one of them is getting it on with a bunch of smoke? Are you serious? And this other one telling thin air to stay away? This might sound like a good way of building mystery on paper but whatever happened here, it did not work. This is why horror is, in my opinion, the trickiest genre to write and pull off. 

Finally, what on earth was with the title music? I think this cemented the idea that this film was not taking itself seriously at all. Not exactly the impression you want so early on. Unless that really is what you’re going for. I have my suspicions that this film wasn’t going for that. The titles were so in your face, the music was so lively and comedic…it just completely set this film up for a fall.

This felt like more of a black comedy that failed to be scary or funny. A lot of face-palms and eye rolling to be expected. More than that, a lot of wondering how in the world this even got made in the first place – and why on earth you’re watching it… I’m judging myself a little bit right now. It was bad. Watch only for an example of everything NOT to do in a horror film. From that point of view, it could be quite the learning experience. Otherwise, I’m sorry but it was god-awful.

TRAILER: