La Chambre Noire

I am a huge fan of cinema and film . I enjoy a variety of Genre's and Horror is in my top three. I've seen many hundreds of Horror titles over the past 25 years and have had access to movie viewing via many resources. These resources include, owning 700+ DVD's, having every pay per view channel available as well as a fire stick which I can, essentially, view any film ever made.

I write the above caveat only to illustrate that I have sufficient film knowledge and experience to determine what makes a Film "good, bad, worth watching, totally avoiding etc). Now, on to "The Black Room".... Fellow Film Buffs, do yourself a Giant favor and steer clear of this "from the moment the score starts and screen lights up" waste of time.

In a nutshell, IMO, any Horror film that wants to be taken seriously does not use cheesy single instrument (multi instrument keyboard) effects to set the tone for a suspenseful background and score to scene elements which sound more like something a 9 yr. old banged out on his/her "music maker app" on their laptop

3 minutes into this film I sensed I was in for a bad ride, and boy was I right! You would think the seemingly never ending typecast Lin Shaye's presence would at least lend some credibility to this flick....Nope! The beautiful Natasha Henstridge and (not to be mistaken for Lukas Haas) Lukas Hassle add nothing more then eye candy to this flop.

The premise and plot are unoriginal and have been used 100's of times over. The fact that the Director uses a sexual element to drive the "scare" scenes add up to nothing more then a poor attempt at tension, without good results, and are silly. The sexual assaults throughout, driving fear, obviously two primordial instincts humans have had since the beginning of humanity sounds like a very philosophical idea, but, 1+1 don't add up to 2 in this mess.

I refuse to waste more time on going through the plot and the cheesy way it continuously fails to create any fear, tension, elevated pulse rate?, etc. I can only say, it seems Horror is the genre more films are made about year after year and its clear its increasingly harder to find a film with originality in any way shape or form. I'm not saying there are no good Horror films made anymore. I'm saying, it's tough to find a new release worth your 80-110 minutes on average. The Black room is no different. In fact, it's one of the more lower end "B" movies I've seen in a long while with a decent cast.

Horror fans all over, go get a root canal or slam your hand in a car door, it's less painful then this film.

If you go into this movie expecting a great "horror" movie, you'll be disappointed. This is, by far, more of a comedy. Supernatural sexual romps seem to be the focal point of this movie. By no means is it a great movie, or a good one for that matter. It's not low budget. But, some will get a rise out of it.

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

Married couple Paul and Jennifer (Lukas Hassle and Natasha Henstridge) move into their dream home blissfully unaware that there is an incubus (a horny devil in more ways than one) trapped in the basement. When Paul accidentally frees the demon, he becomes possessed by the evil creature, which proceeds to seduce and kill those who cross its path.

The Black Room begins two years earlier with Miss Black (Lin Shaye) woken in the night by the incubus, the monster somehow escaping its prison in the form of smoke (logic is not this film's strong point). While Miss Black screams at the monster, the invisible incubus enters the room where sexy granddaughter Dawn (Alex Rinehart) is sleeping, peels the duvet off her bed, removes her nightie, fondles her nipples, whips off her panties and gives her an orgasm. It's that kind of film.

Dawn is then lured into the basement, where she is groped by slimy demonic hands before being roasted by a fiery blast from the furnace. So far, so tawdry and trashy.

And so it continues, as Paul and Jennifer take ownership of the property, both keen to have sex as soon as possible in their new home, but unable to find the right time. The demon finds a way to keep them both happy, however, using its powers to satisfy Jennifer in the bath and give Paul head while he relaxes in bed.

The horror begins after Paul unwittingly releases the incubus, and becomes possessed, with several people meeting sticky fates: electrician Oscar is dragged into the 'black room', leaving behind his severed fingers; Jennifer's goth sister Karen (Augie Duke) has her mouth torn open by the rapey incubus's schlong; plumber Leo has his head crushed in a washing machine door by the undead Karen; and housewarming guests Howard (Caleb Scott) and Stacy (Dominique Swain) wind up in the basement as demon food.

Eventually, Jennifer realises the truth and attempts to rid her husband of the incubus (using a metal disc with a glowing 'eye') before the creature can be reborn, none of which makes much sense. Despite a reasonable cast (Henstridge, Swain, and Shaye are deserving of much better), the film amounts to little more than some cheap titillation, a touch of not-very-impressive gore, and lots of really bad visual effects.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for Henstridge making her washing machine blow up. Way to go!

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.