31 Days Of Hallowe’en: Green Room (2015)

Welcome to JOE's 31 Days Of Hallowe'en. For each and every day of October, we'll be bringing you a horror movie to tuck into for the lead up to the big night. It could be new, old, an undiscovered gem, or a classic you'll have seen a thousand times. No matter what it is, we guarantee you that it is brilliant, and it is SCARY.

For Day 17, we're looking back over 2015's violent, intense, terrifying lock-down thriller, Green Room. Writer and director Jeremy Saulnier kinda came out of nowhere with his 2013 revenge thriller Blue Ruin (if you haven't seen it, rectify that immediately), so all eyes were on him to see what he'd do as a follow up. Once he got his calling card out of the way, he was able to put together a very impressive cast, and got them to do some truly terrifying things. Welcome to the Green Room. Anton Yelchin plays the lead singer for a heavy-punk band who are hired to perform in a particularly dodgy bar in the middle of nowhere. Waiting backstage to get paid, they happen to witness a murder and attempt to make a run for it. However, it turns out that the murderer is a member of the local Neo-Nazi group, and when their leader (played with shocking intensity by Patrick Stewart) decides the group needs to be killed, they lock themselves into the titular green room and try to find a way to escape and survive. Clip via A24 Featuring one of the final performances by the late great Yelchin before his untimely death, as well as the aforementioned out-of-left-field villainy by the usually friendly Captain Picard/Professor Xavier, there's also great support by Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) as another member of Yelchin's punk-band, and Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later) as another witness who gets caught up in the madness, they help sell the idea of an entire scary movie revolving around being in a room, and people outside wanting to get in and kill you. Saulnier does a great job of keeping things on a knife edge throughout, with a barely-there running time of just an hour and a half, things never stay still for long, as the survivors are constantly coming up with new ways to try to escape, and Patrick and his Nazis coming up with new ways to kill them. And the violence... you guys... the violence in this movie. Holy moly. If you don't wince at least once - particular during one extended sequence where Yelchin finds his arm trapped by a door - then you need to check your pulse. Check out our previous recommendations below: Day 1 - The Omen Day 2 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Day 3 - The Ring Day 4 - The Invitation Day 5 - Scream 2 Day 6 - It Follows Day 7 - Eden Lake Day 8 - The Thing (1982) Day 9 - Switchblade Romance Day 10 - The Babadook Day 11 - 28 Weeks Later Day 12 - The Strangers Day 13 - Friday The 13th (1980) Day 14 - [REC] & [REC]2 Day 15 - Bone Tomahawk Day 16 - Candyman