La Chambre des Tortures

Another film, based in one room, in which 4 people are eliminated to one, told from the perspective of a behavioural psychologist observing the experiment. The experimentees are promised $250 each for completing the 1 day 8 hour test but have no idea what the experiment is or who is behind it. The film starts out with a lot of promise - after the irony behind the traps in the Saw franchise the ingenuity bar has been set reasonably high already. Factor in the cult success of Cube and this film is branching into a cornered market. But then again that really is the problem: apart from 1 of 2 cheap jumps there is barely any glint of originality in either the script, performances or concept. The director has done OK with limited material yet even overlooking the often mumbled dialogue (really, why they whisper so much is utterly baffling) and the frequently massive jumps to conclusions that seem to be spontaneously materialising out of thin air, there is still nothing here to shout about. As other reviews point out, the walkie talkie commentary gets annoying quickly but thats not the biggest of the many flaws. Without the gore of Saw we need good three dimensional relatable characters whereas The Killing Room presents us with cardboard victims on the assumption that for some unknown reason we will guess who's going to survive and indeed, care. It's painfully obvious from the start who's going to win, what interested me was how the doctor would react to the unfolding events. Well, that plot line goes nowhere interesting - so that was a wasted mental effort on my part. The only positive from this film is that it's all over very quickly. There's a totally predictable twist ending and a wider social commentary element that falls flatter than Kansas.

This movie is so good, and was one if the first "trapped" or "game play" horror films that really stuck with me. Very underrated but more than worth watching.

To repeat what I read in a previous review-- what did he say? The dialogue consists of a lot of whispering with cuts to much louder sound effects and screaming, forcing you to keep the volume remote in hand. Or, in my case, leading to apologies to the neighbors for the intermittent screaming last night.

More to the point, what did the movie say? It's a suspense/thriller, which keeps you waiting and really hoping that the ending pays you back for the time invested. This movie doesn't. The ending forces the viewer to realize how implausible the whole premise is.

I won't spoil the ending except to say that the ending is spoiled by the time you get to it.

In this review I shall not go deeply into the plot, as I believe that the viewer will benefit from knowing as little of the narrative as possible, seeing as the script offers many twists and turns to any film-goer looking for thrills, and the film delivers on its dark premise, and then some.

While films where a group of characters are manipulated and tested upon in many a sadistic and calculated manner have been all the rage since the Saw series, (comparisons to the franchise wouldn't be completely unfounded) this movie has a somewhat different approach to all the torture porn of late by relying on mind-games to get its thrills. Thanks to the swift pace, taut direction and believable cast, this is pulled off tremendously well.

The plot concerns under-the-radar experiments by a government-tied group (the purpose of which not revealed to the viewer until later) on a group of random volunteers. It starts off innocently enough when they are asked to fill out a form of questions, but things take a sudden turn for the sinister, and the group starts acting upon instinct. However they are constantly being scrutinised by a team of psychologists, and through conversations with the leader of the project and a talented new employee, we learn that their every move is anticipated and prepared for. This creates a sense of impending doom, and brilliantly we, the viewer, feel like we are observing them along with their captors.

The performances are incredibly strong and plausible, and as we learn more about the characters and their motives, the suspense and drama feels all the more engaging. While the idea that experiments like this are still being carried out to this day (the film is based upon real experiments conducted by the CIA in the 60's and 70's) is completely impossible, the script makes it feel completely possible. The whole film twists and turns sharply, making for some genuine bite-your-nails, edge-of-your-seat stuff, something which has been missing from thrillers lately.

For fans of this sort of fare, I wholeheartedly recommend this as what is going to be one of the best thrillers of this year. Hell, even if you don't like the genre usually, I think that you should give this a watch. The film will grip you throughout the entirety of its running time until it twists the knife one last time and leaves on a brilliantly sinister note.

In THE KILLING ROOM, four unsuspecting subjects are trapped in a white room with no exit, and forced to answer a series of questions. The wrong answer means certain death for one of them.

Meanwhile, the mysterious people (Peter Stormare and Chloe Sevigny) conducting this experiment observe and manipulate from their perch above the room. Trouble brews when Sevigny's character questions her role in this insane project.

In the end it's revealed that nothing is as it's appeared to be, and a very dark purpose is fulfilled.

Timothy Hutton and Clea DuVall are the standout test subjects.

This is bleak stuff...