GREEN ROOM (2015) The first Cinemondo “Deep Dive” episode. Burk, Mark and Kathy talk about Jeremy Saulnier,'s GREEN ROOM and go into detail about the story and the production and the construction of a suspense film. Why do some filmmakers understand how to shoot suspense stories, and others don’t seem to get it.
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SPOILER WARNING: This is an in depth look at this film so spoilers are revealed. Watch First Listen Later.
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GREEN ROOM (2015) The first Cinemondo “Deep Dive” episode. Burk, Mark and Kathy talk about Jeremy Saulnier,'s GREEN ROOM and go into detail about the story and the production and the construction of a suspense film. Why do some filmmakers understand how to shoot suspense stories, and others don’t seem to get it.
Join Cinemondo and over a hundred thousand podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Sign up here to get your podcast started!
We're also on Patreon!
Become a Patron on Patreon
SPOILER WARNING: This is an in depth look at this film so spoilers are revealed. Watch First Listen Later.
Cinemondo Podcast is a weekly show that's released every Monday. If you’d like to support our show, please subscribe to our podcast free in iTunes, and leave us a review!
We want to hear from you so write in with more recommendations and comments. Email us: CinemondoPodcast@gmail.com
Connect with us:
instagram.com/CinemondoPodcast
Hello, welcome to the Cinemondo Podcast with Kathy, Mark and Burk talking about movies, horror, scifi, unusual, unknown, forgotten, under appreciated. Always interesting. Hopefully. Today we're going to talk about what we all just saw pretty recently; the movie is called Green Room. Or is it The Green Room?
Mark:It's just green room. The Green Room is another movie.
Kathy:Is it actually green?
Burk:Well do you know why green rooms are called green rooms?
Kathy:I do not.
Mark:I don't either.
Burk:I don't either.
Kathy:He's asking.
Mark:The original green room must have been green was and
Burk:It was just some backstage room, probably some, you know, like superstitious actor lore, you know, that room has to be green.
Mark:Or maybe Lorne Greene was the first guest.
Burk:Could have been. I think that's more likely.
Kathy:The lighting was sort of sickly, like gross room in the back behind the bar. So it sort of looked greenish.
Mark:Yeah, it could have been called the drab room.
Speaker 1:Everyone looked green in it.
Mark:Yeah.
Burk:From my experience with nightclubs, the Green Room is always where you get paid. So that's like the green room, you know,
Mark:It's a positive vibe, right? You go back there, there's you're getting paid, you're also, there should be food there and..
Burk:Green food.
Mark:Burk used to be in a band years ago and then they have like a, you know, I set up a shrimp and all kinds of treats.
Burk:Every time we had riders we demanded certain things.
Kathy:Only green M& M's.
Burk:We demand to have electricity.
Kathy:Air conditioning?
Burk:And and if possible, air conditioning.
Kathy:So demanding. So it's pre- Adonis.
Burk:And if we didn't get those things we didn't play.
Mark:and people will be upset
Burk:If there was no electricity, we didn't play.
Kathy:What was your favorite club to play in Atlanta?
Burk:There was, I think the 688 club was the classic one that was just so much. The people there, everything was great, but there were some. I mean this movie is about a, a club that's not really the focus of the club isn't really a music club even though it's a music club. It's a, it's a scary. It's a scary nightclub in a way that a lot of clubs back in my memory, I remember clubs like this. I remember these places that you just, you don't want to play there. You don't play there because it's violent and it's, you know, these racist skinhead
Mark:Or you were, you were scared for your safety or just like, or just like let's just do the set and get out of here kind of thing.
Burk:There were those two. I, they were, you know, get, you'd get booked into places. I remember one band I was in, we got booked in this club and in Nashville, I think it was Nashville and we were like a pop band, you know, we were sort of like a happy sort of pop band and we show up at this place and we're like, oh no, these are not our people. These are not, these are not, you know, pop people at all.
Kathy:What were they?
Burk:They were, they were like, we want some country music.
Mark:Oh really.
kathy:Eww!
Burk:And if you don't play us some country music right now we're going to throw some bottles, at ya and they are going to be full bottles.
Kathy:Have you had bottles thrown?
Burk:Oh yeah.
Mark:Gosh!
Kathy:That sounds horrifying.
Burk:I've had bottles hit me and you just sorta keep playing. And you know, you've had people jump up on stage back in those days and
Kathy:You were, you were playing around Atlanta during Rupaul times, right?
Burk:Yeah.
Kathy:You got to meet Rupaul back then. Oh yeah, punk rock, right?
Burk:Yeah. Ru was all over, all over the place. He was like in bands and just in the circle of friends and hanging out and just exactly what you would think he would be back then. You know, it was, he was sort of a punk rock guy, but he still did the, the gigantic spectacles, the shows that they did were, were pretty amazing.
Kathy:That's really cool.
Burk:And the funny thing about him, everybody knew at that time, everybody, it was just sort of a given that someday he's, I mean, he, he said he called himself a superstar back then, you know, when he was playing in these grungy little
Kathy:Confidence.
Burk:...dives, he was like, he had that confidence. I am a superstar.
Mark:And the aura
Burk:And the aura. Yeah. You knew it. You just looked at this guy or like this, something gigantic is going to happen with him.
Kathy:I love him much.
Mark:That Atlanta, Athens, you know, music slash underground scene was pretty vibrant.
Burk:It was.
Mark:Y'all know.
Burk:And be in that. It was, you know, Atlanta is in the south and there's a lot of, you know, racially charged stuff undercurrent and whatever. There were skinheads too. There were these sort of Nazi skinheads that you'd, you know, if you played in clubs and you were loading your equipment out or something real late at night, there would, there would be sometimes there would be these guys hanging out drinking in this, in the alleys and you know, just hanging out in the places. I used to live near the clubs in this area where a lot of the clubs were and sometimes we would just load our equipment right to my house. And you know, if you, if uh, you know, one of your band members happened to have a girlfriend of a different race, you know, you could be attacked in the parking lot.
Mark:Were there bands that catered to that group that you knew of or played with? I mean, was that a thing?
Burk:We didn't play with them. They were a club. They were, you know, they had their own little, their own little areas.
Mark:Gotcha. You just stay clear that.
Burk:Yeah. But you know, the club scene back then was so small that they would just come hang out just if they wanted to get into a fight and he'd come hang out and wait in the parking lot for somebody, you know, and then they could just mess with them, you know, flick a cigarette at them or something.
Kathy:The Ku Klux Klan was sort of going on there in that area during that time because remember when Howard Stern would call the
Burk:Stone Mountain-
Kathy:Yes, he was in Stone Mountain, what was his name? And He, you know, he had that great sign, but he would always call and talk to that guy and he would talk about their marches and it's creepy to think that we think it's bad now, but that stuff's still active. It's still going on even back in the eighties.
Burk:So yeah. It's just in the, it's just been, you know, encouraged lately.
Mark:Yeah, it's been submerged, but it was always there and that's kind of out in the open.
Kathy:And that I always thought skinheads were kind of a joke because you know, they seemed outdated and they were on the wrong losing side of the whole issue in the war and so it's weird to see this sort of joke of a faction of people that is now sort of considered, not legit, but like formidable when they should be just under a rock somewhere.
Burk:Well, the thing about the music scene in this movie, the reason we're talking about this stuff is this movie actually takes place in a Nazi skinhead punk rock club in Portland, Oregon, I think in the middle of the woods outside of Portland. I mean it's, it's out in know rural place in that setting is used as a horror setting. You know, it's like a cabin in the woods, but it's a club in the west and people are trapped and there's a, the, the, the, the idea is that a band, you know, kind of a poor up incoming punk rock band who sort of takes whatever gigs they can get. They get booked into this club, not really knowing the extent of what was going on, what's going on in this club. It's a, it's just a nasty, hateful, you know,
Mark:And it's a nice setup in the beginning of the movie because they're in a van there from Arlington, Virginia, but they're out in the Pacific northwest,
Burk:Right.
Speaker 1:And a Gig that they were supposed to have got canceled so there penniless and they play some other gig and nobody's there and they get paid like$5 each or something
Kathy:They're basically playing for gas money and
Mark:They say, how are we going to get back from Oregon to Arlington? Well, through this connection, this guy that they met that I know somebody, there's a place you get paid$350 cash, just do it. You'll be, you know, do set and you'll, it'll be like a Saturday afternoon and you're gone. So obviously they're going to take it because that's how they get home.
Kathy:That probably, that seems to them a big money. Like, oh,$350.
Mark:That's huge.
Burk:And they get into this place and it turns out to be just this nasty violent, there's swastikas and Nazis and, and the that kind of thing. Like what we were talking about and I'm talking about back in the eighties with clubs, there were those skin heads, you know, and it was like we always thought they were a joke, you know, they were kind of a joke. I mean there
Kathy:A fashion statement.
Burk:But they were scary. They were sort of the opposite of a fashion statement and was kind of the absence of any kind of anything interesting to any of us. It was the opposite of what we were in the scene for. We were in the music scene to do something different and to do something that was interesting and unusual and fun. And
Kathy:And you weren't racist assholes.
Burk:Yeah, but their whole thing was all about uniforms. It was like, that was. I remember when punk rock first started the whole idea, I'm sold, but when punk rock first started, the idea was it was diy, man, diy, do it yourself and invent it yourself. And there was a cross between. There was like a high, the early days, it was a hybrid between all kinds of the arts, all different arts. There were people that publish their magazines, these fanzines people who wrote people. You would have a punk rock band and then you would have a poet get up there and read poetry and then you would have a performance artist and then you would have another band who did not sound like the first band and and, and then another band who was a completely different, not even pop music. It might've been some sort of like weird noise, industrial noise music band. But it was. That was the scene. But then when the sort of the rules punks, we used to call them rules punks because they had so many rules.
Kathy:So many!
Burk:You had to wear this kind of shoes, this color of belt, this kind of shirt from this store. You know,
Kathy:This haircut.
Burk:This exact haircut and you had to use these clippers to cut your hair, you know, or else you are not cool. And that was just so not appealing. And that was. I think that's that when you see that in this movie and you see how regimented all these guys are and the whole idea of what color shoelaces you wear, has something to do with what level you are in the, in the group. Anyway, that's the horror of this film. I'm Green Room.
Mark:Yeah. And we want to do a deep dive, but we really get into the movie.
Burk:Say, say it again. What do you want to do? You want to do a
Mark:uh, deep dive.
Burk:Whoa.
Kathy:That was deep.
Mark:Keep that effect on us for the rest of the podcast.
Burk:Does that work when you say it? Kathy?
Kathy:Deep dive.
Burk:That's so cool.
Mark:Burk. You got to do it when you guys do it.
Burk:Okay. Here I go. Deep dive. Wait. Deep dive. I don't know how to do it.
Kathy:It's a talent when. Sorry. We'll teach you how to do it after this is over and
Burk:Show me again
Mark:Deep dive.
Burk:It's so good. Anyway, here's our first deep dive. What is the deep dive?
Mark:We just talk about Green Room and get in depth into the story into a, you know, who made it and who starred in it and why it's so good.
Kathy:I think it's also sort of relevant today because know since there's that new awareness will say, have, you know, white supremacy, I think that made this movie even scarier than the first time I watched it when white supremacy wasn't, was kind of like in the shadows where it should be. So
Burk:It hadn't been popularized.
Kathy:It wasn't popular.
Mark:Those places are out there.
Kathy:Oh yeah. They've always been out there.
Mark:Yeah. So it started stars the late uh, Anton Yelchin and which is sad to watch because he's such a good actor.
Burk:He's so great in this too. As a, as a American young American band musician.
Mark:Yeah. He's kind of like the leader of the band and
Kathy:in case you know, people are aware who that is. He played Chekov and the new Star Trek movies. JJ Abrams movies, right? Yes.
Mark:And some other interesting stuff. Really good. A great actor. I said Patrick Stewart, who is also another Star Trek alum, um, a different Star Trek
Kathy:Using a southern accent, which was kind of interesting.
Burk:Yeah.
Kathy:A good one. Not overplayed.
Burk:But still with that Patrick Stewart gravitas, you know, he still, when he shows up, he's everybody's dad.
Kathy:Authority instantly.
Mark:And Mason Blair who is in all of Jeremy Saulnier's films. This is the third one. The first one was miss a Murder Party, which haven't seen.
Kathy:Oh yeah, I saw Murder Party. That was great. It wasn't, but let's not say great, but it was a great concept and a very interesting little low budget movie.
Mark:Right. So I'll have to see that. And the second one was Blue Ruin, which I think is really good and kind of really put them on the map. Very Coen Brothers, a Blood Simple-ish and um, really worth checking out. And then of course a Green Room, which was from 2015. And as we've said, it's a punk rock band that gets this gig in, in rural Oregon somewhere. And they show up and of course, you know, you hit, they're driving in these. See the. See the compound and if I was in that van, I'm like, I don't know about this place.
Burk:There's definitely clubs. It's like, you know, when you're looking for a hotel or something in the town you're looking at this place. It's like, now let's go on to the next.
Kathy:But they were so desperate.
Mark:They needed the money. They get home so they just suck it up and go in there and they go into the Green Room.
Kathy:Oh, but you know, they bring up an interesting thing I thought is that they asked everyone what's your desert island album, the one album that you would take to a desert island. That's kind of a thread that goes through the story we saw. Thinking about that ourselves, what would you guys have?
Burk:It's impossible. I can't do that.
Kathy:It's so hard. I couldn't tell him that.
Mark:Oh Gosh. I would be embarrassed to say, yeah, I'd be shunned for them.
Burk:I don't even think I have. I think that's kind of a question for younger people. Like, what's your favorite color? You know, it's uh, it's like I can't pick like, what's your favorite movie? You know, I don't have a favorite movie.
Kathy:Well, I It's okay if it changes. I think you just pick your album or movie in the moment and then tomorrow it might be a different album or it depends on, you know.
Burk:But I think that the ideas of desert island means this is the, this is forever. This is going to be the only thing. If it's just like, what? What's the album that you want to listen to today? That's
Kathy:I mean when you answer it. You're not being beholden. Like if you get on an island, they won't hold you to that original.
Mark:But I wouldn't put that much thought into it because I pick something and then it'd be in the desert. Boy, I really picked this one? Gee whiz
Burk:And now you're stuck with it. Mark for the rest of your life.
Mark:I like Captain and Tennille.
Burk:But after a couple of years on the island,.
Kathy:Like in the movie he'll, they're all answering[inaudible]. They're a punk band and they're talking to a guy at the Mohawks. They want to make sure they sound cool. So their name and all of this hardcore punk stuff like Cromags and
Burk:The Misfits, of course.
Kathy:The Damned, did you say Iggy Pop. I don't remember they, they said there was a line about him not being right for a desert island. I don't remember why.
Burk:It's funny. I thought when they said the Damned, I thought that was kind of interesting because the Damned are pop kind of pop.
Kathy:But they have that name and attitude but they're not.
Burk:But that almost struck me. They're not, they're not Cro Mags or the Misfits.
Speaker 1:They're, they're like a, they're the almost like a, like a sunshine pop band in some ways with a sort of a monster edge, you know, like a monster pop band.
Mark:Well they were just trying to make it and say let's just be a punk band. So they go and they go to the green room, right. And they set up, unless they're going to be on 20 minutes. So they go on and they do their set and before they start the first song, uh, Anton Yelchin character goes, well, let's mix it up a bit or something. He says something like that.
Burk:I think it's one of those things where like, do you want to do this or not, you know.
Kathy:Their afraid to do their first song because it anti-skinheads. So they just go into a, you know, the Dead Kennedys, Nazi Punks Fuck Off, which is a, you know, 85 seconds of fun.
Burk:But it's not a, it's not like a"hi Nazis" were on your side.
Mark:Not at all.
Kathy:But I think, in a way. Even though the audience kind of reacted like, what the fuck. It's like they were still kind of appreciative that they had the balls to play it. Like, yeah, okay.
Mark:They got a couple of bottles thrown at them a couple of--maybe there was a spit, some spitting and..
Kathy:But I think they liked it because okay, we get it.
Mark:And then the next song they started to get into it. So this set actually went pretty well, I would think. So the set's finished. They walked back to the Green Room.
Kathy:Dun-dun-dun!
Mark:And the door's closed and they just opened the door and walk in and there they see,
Burk:Well they...no, they go back there and they're fine. Everything's good. And the girls charging her cell phone and they're leaving, they're like on their way out the door and everything is, is they got their money and their, their heading back and everything is good. Like with a, with a, with a lot of good horror films. There's one tiny thing that if it didn't happen and she said, oh, I gotta go get my phone. I left my phone in there.
Mark:Never forget your cell phone.
Burk:Never, you know, never have to go. You should never have to turn around and go back to someplace in a horror film.
Kathy:Is that her name, Ali Sawkhat?
Mark:Uh, I think it's Shawkat. Yeah.
Kathy:I don't think we mentioned who's in the cast. You probably know her from Arrested Development. She's awesome. Really good. Really is good.
Burk:And she's using a lot of stuff.
Mark:She's always, I'm always does a good job. But she goes back to get her cell phone, opens the door and then sees a dead girl on the floor with a knife in her temple. And two guys kind of standing over
Kathy:Looking guilty.
Mark:Looking guilty.
Burk:And can another girl over there too. That's another girl looking shellshocked.
Mark:Played by imogen Poots just such an awesome...
Kathy:You just like to same that name. We need an echo on that. Or we need the deep dive.
Mark:Imogen Poots. Big fan by the way. So anyway, so they see this and all of a sudden it's, oh shit.
Kathy:Witnesses.
Mark:And kind of mayhem how it happens. They don't know what to do. Like the one guy who was in the big dude says you should have locked the door, you know, or back and forth, but they're stuck in the green room until this is sorted out.
Kathy:Just for their own safety. They're told just just to keep you here til we figured this out. Right. And the body.
Mark:And of course the punk rockers want them to call the cops and they're not going to get out until, you know, I'm not gonna leave until the cops show up. And uh, and that's just, that's, that's they're, they're stuck. Yeah. That's the setup. It's a contained thriller. They're in the Green Room. These bad dudes are out there.
Kathy:We don't really know what happened.
Mark:We don't know who the leader is until they call the head guy, Darcy and that's played by Patrick Stewart and he's just, you know, comes in and he's a cool and calm collected maniac. He's the leader.
Kathy:Ruthless.
Mark:And he, he kind of know what's going to happen, you know, like, you know, uh, Yeltsin's character calls up to calls the cops. And I said, oh no, I'm sorry. Uh, somebody else calls her, there's been a stabbing.
Burk:Right when she sees it, she just got her phone that she was charging and she calls nine one one and she's like, there's been a stabbing here, there's been a stabbing and they grab her phone away from her. Right, right. But they have to cover for the fact that she's already reported a stabbing. Right. So one of the guys calls back and says, yes, there's a stabbing. And then, um, you know, police come and then of course what they do is they go outside, they, they have two young guys, they're skinheads.
Kathy:Idiots.
Burk:And Darcy says, I need to pull 650 bucks out of the till here. And he goes and pays one of these boys to be stabbed by another one to, to be the stabbing that was reported.
Mark:And they use the right size blade, like this will not go deep enough to cause internal
Burk:And it won't be illegal. It's under the legal. Within the legal limit. Yeah. And he said if you have to do time, I'll pay double.
Kathy:Yeah. And the kids like, yeah, I've done it before. He's like the stabbing guy all the time. You have to be stabbed again.
Mark:Get Phil. So the police show up and uh, they see what's going on and they're satisfied that this is what happened. And they leave. So the cops are gone.
Kathy:See, that's like the worst cops ever. I mean, you know, they didn't stop and get evidence. They didn't, they didn't really do much of anything.
Burk:Well I got the impression that the cops get called to this place constantly. And there's always just some. And they probably feel like, oh, it's these guys beating themselves up again.
Kathy:And they made it look like that too. So that's another fight.
Mark:And then might have been some connection with Darcy because when he gets out of his truck and the first is on his, on his doors, it's like a 24 hour emergency service. So he has some sort of his business, his other business might be some sort of know they might have a relationship with the police. Yeah. So maybe they get a little bit less. That's true, you know, purview. So anyway. Um, so basically this band is stuck at this club and they don't know what to do. They still think the cops are coming but they're not going to come.
Kathy:No, they come and gone.
Mark:So how are they going to get out?
Burk:But it's a classic. We were like, we've been talking about this isolation horror films. They're trapped in this, in this club, kind of in the green room in a way that the guys in The Thing or trapped at the, at the research station. And there's a threat out there that they don't. I mean in this case it's a human threat of course, but it's like, it's, you know, they don't know how many. They don't know what kind of weapons they have because they keep speculating. They're like, if they had guns, they just shoot us right now. If they are, but they don't want to. They're like some reason why they're not shooting us, you know, there's some reason why this and this and this and it turns out that, you know, the character Darcy is being very tactical about everything and he wants to. He's trying to figure it out. He's trying to use these sort of obedient goons that he has under his control to, to enact this tactical response to a problem in his, in his club. And you're in. You're also wondering why don't they just. I mean, why is he being so loyal to this guy, to this guy who killed a girl? You know, I mean, these people are such sociopaths already. Why does it need, why don't they just throw that one to the police, you know, and just, and call it a day and everything is fine, but it turns out that, you know, these guys are trying to escape from the green room. At one point they'd start kicking the floorboards in and they go down underneath the place and they realize, oh, okay, there's a heroine lab down here and now it all becomes clear and now it becomes even more grim because they're like, you know what, they're not trying to protect the guy that killed this girl. They're trying to keep the police from coming to discover their, their giant underground drug lab.
Kathy:And now we know about the underground lab. Now what's gonna happen to us? Because they're. They're sort of still banking on. Well, they're just going to let us go. Right once this is figured out. But I think there is. They're getting this sickening feeling that it's going to be worse than that.
Mark:You know, Darcy and his gang that he's a smart guy, but also the band is smart. They do smart things and they realize they're in trouble.
Kathy:But like how they're not like superheroes smart. Like they're kind of panicking like, like how you feel. You would be like, oh crap, what are we gonna do? Oh no, but you're like, we could try this, like totally stupid, but you don't feel like they're being unrealistically smart either. It's like very savvy but realistic, very grounded.
Burk:And they're in and they do put you in these situations where, you know, and of course it's Patrick Stewart with his voice outside the door saying just hand me the gun, you know, he's not using his real accent, but he's doing a sort of a southern accent I think. Right? Portland accent.
Mark:It's just some sort of rural take and...
Burk:But it's still got his, the reverb and natural, you know, Captain Picard and he's outside the door. Just being so convincing and charming and, and, and apparently realistic about it. He's like, look, we just don't want this unregistered gun to get into the hands of the police. We don't want to get into trouble. All you have to do is give us the gun and we'll let you go. And he's saying it in such a way that you're like, okay dad, you know.
Kathy:What they want to hear too. We just gave him the gun and get out of here. That's all we want to tell him.
Burk:We won't tell anybody I promise, you know, that's always the thing in, in movies, like all the classic film noir type things where somebody sees something that they shouldn't see and they know that having seen it endangers them and they're like, I swear I won't tell anybody. No. So sad.
Mark:But they also have guy, they're a big, I think his name was Justin, who they sort of a, they got ahold of his gun and they sort of holding him hostage so they have a low. That's why I don't think that's why they're not storming in there because they don't want obviously justin to die. Um, but I think if I remember correctly, um, when they try to do the gun transfer, you know, and he opens the door and then he sees, you know, Patrick Stewart than they see some boots, some red laces...
Burk:Yeah, through the vent on the floor and she sees these red laces and she knows what that means. She's like, they're killing us.
Kathy:Do you think everybody knows what red laces means?
Mark:I don't.
Kathy:Do you know what that means?
Burk:I do. Tell us, Kathy,
Kathy:It means that blood has been shed for the Brotherhood, so he at least knows people who won't back down if, if it comes to violence, like they are the hardcore. So you see him, you know, they probably hurt people.
Mark:Gotcha. Yeah. And they hurt his arm pretty bad.
Kathy:Oh, that's so gross. Just slamming the door is stuck in the door in their hacking and almost cut it off.
Burk:He's trying to hold onto the gun and he finally lets go with the gun...
Mark:..and he pulls his hand back and his wrists hands basically dangling by like...
Kathy:It was so gross. That's probably the worst thing in the movie. I think that's one of the...
Burk:That box cutter thing is pretty awful. So it's got some pretty, pretty icky, gory stuff.
Mark:And Amber, who is sort of the girlfriend who was not in the band but it's stuck in the room with them.
Kathy:Poots.
Mark:So it's. Yeah, Poots. Poots.
Burk:We're not making fun of her name.
Mark:Oh No, not at all. I like her a lot. I wonder why we're going to do an Imogen Poots podcast anyway. Well yeah. Anyway, they take, she takes a box cutter to Justin, the bad guy in there and it's just, I mean, it just as a box cutter, it's like, it's like a zipper sort of just like, it just pulls up to his sternum, just spreads apart.
Kathy:Nasty. It was gross. I liked it.
Mark:It was deserved it. That guy was going to do some damage. Um, so they're smart. Patrick Stewart is smart and, but they're still stuck there and the air in the middle of nowhere. So how did they get out?
Burk:But that's the thing that they're smart and what you just said is such an important thing in movies like this where you were, there's suspense and I think we talk about suspense and you see movies that are described either labeled suspense, film, you know, but so many movies don't really have the level of suspense because you're not, you're not buying this person, you're not, you don't believe this character because they're being so stupid or is, you know, some other of the many reasons why suspense films don't work. But this one worked because they're smart. It worked because I would probably be at least hoping I was that smart in such a situation and maybe be doing some of these things because there's so many movies you see where you're like, oh, they should have. Why didn't they, you know, why don't they just,
Mark:They're good at improvising. Like they improvise weapons. Yeah. They get like a fire extinguisher. And when the dog that, you know, these dogs come in.
Kathy:Well they decide to finally leave the room. They go out to the bar, which is empty, suspiciously empty, right?
Mark:And so, uh, one of the characters picks up a fire extinguisher smart.
Kathy:Ali.
Mark:And then, um, they see pitbulls coming after him.
Kathy:Pit bulls.
Mark:Who we love. Darwin, don't hear this part. But they're very smart.
Burk:They're trained to be fighting dogs and they keep them in those little cages and they, you can tell these guys, use them in dog fights.
Mark:And the fight word is"foss". Which a wolf in German. And uh, and unfortunately the lead singer, I think his name was a Tiger or something like that.
Kathy:Yes, it was.
Mark:Gets chewed up pretty good. And he, he dies.
Kathy:But then in another smart move they're trying to beat the dog with to get him off of him with a mic stand and they realize it's creating feedback, which is actually is the thing that's driving the dog away. So they really amplify and make the feedback, chase the dogs out of the club.
Burk:But when you put a microphone next to a speaker and what happens is a mic stand, falls over and the microphone lands right next to the monitor and it just starts a feedback squeal, which everybody's heard.
Kathy:Yeah. It's hard to watch. Just know. It was like, ugh.
Burk:But everybody's heard that sound. If you've ever been to a nightclub or seen a live band, there's always going to be somebody who gets a mic too close to a speaker and it, dogs hate that noise.
Kathy:Yeah. So yeah, it turns into a bit of a clusterfuck because Tiger gets killed by the dog.
Mark:And then the other guy, Reese, who was the drummer, tries to crawl out a window. He gets hacked to death outside with a machete.
Kathy:I like that all the action happened. Like all of a sudden.
Mark:All of a sudden they're down two people...
Burk:And the stakes are high because your, your characters, your main people are dying, you know. And so it becomes one of those films like who's going to survive? Is Anybody gonna live through this?
Kathy:So back to the green room. We go, oh yeah, they have to go deep attempts. The only safe place they have to go now is back to that same room.
Mark:And there is another, you know, skinhead, uh, his name is Daniel and he, there was a subplot where they found out that he was going to escape with Emily, who is the murdered girl.
Kathy:Having as a little love triangle.
Mark:Right. So, uh, I guess Darcy calls you and said to Daniel, go in there and take care of this.
Burk:Because this band from out of town has killed your girlfriend, he tries to get them to think that this band. Like when the guy believes him for some reason, like why would a band come and kill a girl in the green room? So he gets into the green room and the girl, the girl who witnessed everything, she said, you believe that, why would you know this is what really happened and he believes he believes her because it just rings true. Right. And so he is on their side now. So they have..
Kathy:And he flips quick too, which I thought was funny. Like he's like, okay, I'm a trader. Like instantly he sees it, he believes it because he knows that this is something that the skinheads, which...
Mark:I think also there was some shots of him earlier that like he doesn't, you know, he's, he wants out of this. Right. And you know, he listens to darcy because he's the, he's the leader so he's going to do that. But he's still thinking. He said so it probably didn't take it. So it probably didn't take much for him to flip. I totally bought that.
Kathy:Yeah. Because you felt he was on his way out. Anyway. So.
Burk:Well that's the thing I've known. I've actually known some people over the years back in the olden days and that people that used to be involved in groups like that and who later grew up and realized how awful it is and actually used to do, I'm done some like covered tattoos and things for people who needed to not have those tattoos. But the thing is, it's like one of the reasons they always say, like when you ask them like, why did you get involved in this in the first place? It was basically like they were my only friends and then you ask them why didn't you get out? And then they say, I was scared, you know, and when a, when a kid is young and some people really gullible, obviously they hear, they hear all this stuff and they just say, okay, that's my opinion too. I'm, I'm with you.
Mark:One of Darcy's lines is, this is not a party, it's a movement. Right? And that's, he's got to remind some of these young guys who were just there to listen to music and have fun. No, this is more serious than that. And uh, and so
Kathy:it's probably get a lot of these people were kind of lost in their lives anyway and I think they have a sense of community and family and that it's the only time they really felt supported. So there are a lot easier to manipulate when they're inside that situation. So you're probably just like soldiers.
Burk:And a lot of these people, this is, I mean this is my opinion, I think a lot of these people are just failures in life. They are unable to cope and they're too weak to really fight for good and you know, fight for, to make their lives better. And so they need somebody to blame for that. And if, if you know, if a figure like Patrick Stewart's character Darcy comes in and says, here's who you need to blame, here's the problem. And they start going, okay, so it's not me. I'm not, I'm not the failure. It's those people that...
Kathy:Sort of like..
Burk:That took my, took my jobs. And it's not that the reason I can't get a job, it isn't because I'm a wimpy little guy who doesn't really, isn't talented as it can't really function in the world. It's because some other person has taken my job.
Kathy:Yeah. That's not good. Okay. So Daniel. So anyway, the trader, the skinhead trader now is helping the band get out of the green room once again, we're leaving the Green Room.
Mark:Yes. And we go to and he goes, he goes to, they go to the club, like behind the bar and he goes, I know something. And uh, and he goes to grab something from the bar underneath the bar and he gets shot in the face...
Kathy:By the bartender. Yeah.
Mark:Dead. That was another like, wow, I thought it was so quick. So he's gone.
Burk:So here's their great ally.
Kathy:You think you have this like, Oh, good support. Like in usual movies, the beat would be okay, now that they have an ally that we can work with this a little bit. But how did they get rid of the alley instantly. So there's that plot lines gone.
Burk:That's another thing we were talking about, we were with this movie where I think we were talking about it with Alien, um, where, you know, Captain Dallas gets, gets killed by the alien really early in the film and he sorta like the strong guy. You're thinking, oh, he's the guy who's gonna save everybody. He's a guy with good ideas and the plan and the, he's the captain and he knows everything, but he gets taken out of the story and in this movie, the guy in their band, I think it was Tiger who is the one who looks and seems like the fighter, you know, he is
Mark:Reece. I think that was Reece actually. Yeah, he was the guy that was holding Justin right arm.
Kathy:He was the bad ass.
Burk:He seems like, okay, this guy is going to be the attack that he's going to be the attack for us and he's going to win, you know. And, and Anton Yelchin is the one who gets this horrible injury and he seems to be sort of a little bit more of a passive guy.
Kathy:But he was like yelling and screaming and crying like you would not count on this guy, right? Like, okay, you settle into like sort of this natural, you know, the movie tropes of like, okay, he's the strong hero guy. We're going to align with him, here's a guy going to help us. Like you kind of feel a little comfortable and this maybe just kind of pulls the rug out from under you and does it. You don't really know where to turn or who to trust what's happened...
Mark:And so quickly because when those two guys go, recent tiger gone in two minutes and then, okay, Daniel is going to be on one. Gone.
Kathy:Gone now who we gonna have?
Burk:But that's another thing I was telling you guys that I watched this movie around the same time that I rewatched for the millionth time, ah, Deliverance.
Kathy:Yes.
Burk:And that's another thing that I was thinking this movie has in common with Deliverance. There's a few little threads that I was thinking about, but one of them is the fact that it's a, it's kind of a, um, isolation horror film. You know, they're trapped on this river by these, by a threat, you know.
Kathy:Out in the woods
Burk:Out in the woods. But the other thing that I think was interesting about it is you got Burt Reynolds who's like the manliest manly man who was ever in a film, right?
Kathy:Unbelievably hot in this movie seriously.
Burk:And he's got the bow and arrow and he's like Mr outdoors and the other guys are these sort of wimpy sort of pale city boys. He's wearing that black sort of. Yeah, the wet suit with a sleepless wet suit and he's smoking the little cigars. He's just the coolest guy in the world. He's the guy you would want to be with in the woods if something went wrong.
Kathy:I would like to be in the woods with Burt Reynolds.
Burk:But what happens to him? He gets taken out, you know, and it's. And so that's a similar similarity in this movie where you get all these people you think are going to be your teammate. You know, like the guy who turns trader and it's to start helping them, you know, four minutes later, boom, he's gone.
Kathy:See that scary when you're all of a sudden the floor drops out and you're like, is this going to be up to me? Like this can't be up to me. Like, oh no. And you're sort of getting the feeling that these, these are not equipped to handle it people are..
Mark:In both of these movies. It's like, yeah, it's not the person you expect it.
Burk:Right. And you got Ned Beatty out there who's having to be a hero and he, he follows through, you know, and John Voight, the guy who smokes a pipe, you know.
Kathy:The big blue eyes. I'm like, yeah.
Burk:You just never get the impression he's never been out of his apartment complex.
Kathy:I like my stay at home life. Yeah. Everyone is like, wimp!
Burk:This is where it is out here in the wilderness and then boop, he's crying in the canoe and...
Kathy:And now it's up to John Voight. I like to be at home with my wife and I have to like protect everyone.
Mark:Yeah, it's like that new film on Netflix, Calibre, you know, like you're, you're just taken out of your comfort zone. Like, thanks for taking me out here.
Kathy:The only person you can trust is the Alpha male that you're then like, you're fucking this up so bad right now. Why am I with.
Mark:I just want to be home. Why did I do this? But..
Burk:But we should. We should actually wrap this one up. We've gone on a deep dive into the Green Room, but we have a little more to do. Should we do a little bit..okay.
Kathy:Yes, let's keep going. It's a little longer.
Mark:Yeah. I mean just to further the plot right after Daniel gets killed, the bartender comes back to the green. Well, no, they don't get. The bartender comes in with a rifle and then somebody hacks them with a machete in the neck. So, but, and then um, but the dog comes in and kills Sam.
Kathy:Another dog down dog didn't die but it killed someone.
Burk:Yeah. And these characters that you really liked too, Sam is really cool and you think she's really smart with the, with the fire extinguisher and the mic stand.
Mark:She's gone too. So you down to Amber and Pat, which is, you know, Yelchin's character, and they go back to the green room.
Kathy:Back in the green room!
Mark:Now what? We're down to two people.
Kathy:Two of us, and there's a bunch of red laces out there and dogs. Now they have dogs that are attack dogs. Yeah. And Darcy sends two other guys in to sort of, you know, finished the job, right? And you know, just, uh, you know, three of three bullets or something like that. And they go in and then Amber and Pat are super smart. It's a trap!
Mark:They're super smart.
Burk:But they know it's a trap and they say this is a trap. But then they also say, but we got to do it because Darcy will be mad at us if we don't do this and apparently the wrath of Darcy is worth being, you know, putting themselves into mortal danger.
Kathy:Well, they're good soldiers, you know, and they know that, that there's really no choice in what they have to do.
Burk:They're scared little boys.
Kathy:Right.
Speaker 4:So they risk everything and you know, they get killed!
Kathy:One of them gets lured into the lab.
Burk:But they get killed because, because Pat and Amber sorta go commando, you know, they, they sort of, Amber goes over and gets a Sharpie and she's like, okay, this is it, this is do or die, you know, we've got this one chance to survive. And so they do this really cool, kind of a tricky thing where he puts on the one of the dead guy's, you know, skinhead jacket. And there's, of course there's a, there's some made in USA hair clippers laying over there somewhere. And he, he shaves his hair off so he looks like a skinhead and he sorta messes his face up. So you can't really see who he is.
Mark:Kinda Cammo is it a little bit or something?
:And then he pretends like he's one of the skinheads who just killed them. And when the other guy comes in or in the other two guys come in and then it, it's, it's a turnaround, which is kinda cool.
Mark:Very cool. Um, and so anyway, Gabe, who maybe we haven't mentioned, but he um, you know, uh, one of the bad guys, but you sort of feel like he kind of has a little more empathy and sort of understands the situation.
Burk:Like a lot of these guys seem like they want a way out, you know?
Mark:Yeah. It felt like this guy was kind of a decent guy, but he's just on the wrong side.
Kathy:He seemed calmer, less malevolent. Like he, he didn't seem like a red lace guy. Like he, he ran the club.
Mark:Well he, he got red laces in the movie from finally he earned them.
Kathy:But it didn't seem like the guy who was at hardcore. So when you see him, you're kind of like a now because you're not sure who to trust anymore at this point.
Burk:And meanwhile Patrick Stewart's character, Darcy seems like he's been through stuff like this before, you know, he seems like he's had these situations happen in and he's kind of calmly. Okay. We have to figure this out. Tactically we have to do..
Mark:Super quick on his feet.
Burk:Yeah. And so he comes up with a plan, he comes up with this idea where they're going to take the, the bands van on this property that says no trespassing and they're gonna set everything up to make it look like this band, you know, our heroes, you know, broke into his property and we're stealing his gas and that he was justified in shooting them.
Mark:Right. And uh, so anyway, Gabe, going back to back to the club Gabe, sees the dead guys and realizes, you know, sort of the Jig is up and uh, pat and amber sort of, you know, at gunpoint, say, you know, get us out of here.
Kathy:And you're like hope he's worth trusting.
Mark:Yeah. And so they just started following him.
Kathy:They do hold him at gunpoint.
Mark:They do, they do. And meanwhile you see one of the poor pit bulls just sort of walking along the street, you know.
Kathy:The one that was scared out with the feedback
Burk:And his chain is dragging behind him.
Kathy:He's just walking down the street.
Mark:But they end up walking to this. Where this setup is, this field where they have the van and the dead bodies and our heroes basically tell Gabe, you know, get outta here, get the cops and he listens to them and leaves and at gunpoint they go around the van and they see these guys and they, uh, you know, basically stick them up.
Burk:But they see Patrick Stewart and the other guy setting up this fake crime scene.
Mark:They say like, they're going to blame this on us and there's a confrontation, which is the climax of the film. And uh, it turns into a shootout and they just, they kill everybody.
Kathy:Kill skinheads!
Burk:And Patrick Stewart starts to run away, you know, is one of those kind of..
Mark:He turns and walks. He sort of does the one eight. He just starts walking away as he's getting his gun.
Kathy:Kind of nonchalantly like I'm outta here, like he's leaving a bad party or something.
Burk:But I was kind of expecting him to say, look guys, we can handle this. We can work this out. I have an, I have an idea. Here's what you do, you know. And, but I think by then it was too far. It's too far gone.
Kathy:I think he's cutting his losses. I don't think I'm going to turn this on. I'm just going to walk away and pretend like it's not happening. Yeah.
Mark:I'm going to walk away thinking that they're nervous, scared they're not going to be able to hit me and I'll get a couple of shots in and you know, maybe survive this and then he got one in the head and that was...
Burk:It was one of those situations where I was looking at, you know, and Patrick Stewart standing there and they, and you know, the guy has a gun on him. I thought we were going to have the beam effect and he was going to get beamed away and you know, he was going to thank you, Mr. Data.
Mark:That would've been a great switcheroo.
Burk:Yeah. And you know, the other two characters are like what happened? He just disappeared.
Kathy:And then he sees Chekov beamed up there and see him.
Mark:Skinhead Star Trek, a whole different thing.
Kathy:So then now, you know, of course, you know, our two heroes are completely exhausted and they just kinda just sit by the side of the road going, what the fuck just happened.
Burk:And the two of them are sitting there in much the same way that uh, the two characters at the end of The Thing are sitting there exhausted, having defeated. They think, you know, the, the enemy and...
Kathy:And they have this great shot, like they hear this weird noise and they, they look down the dirt road and see this dog walking toward them, dragging his leash and that's this big pit bull. So they, they instantly like go into like point their guns at it. But then the dog just ignores them and walks past and he just kind of track it with their guns. A dog walks past them to his dog handler and just lays down next to his dead dog handler and they just kinda go, okay.
Burk:Even though the guy mistreated him and used him as a fighting dog.
Mark:But he was still his master.
Kathy:And that's like the dogs weren't attacking them because he hated them. You know? It was like, that was something he was taught.
Burk:He was doing what his master told him to do, which is what dogs do, right? Yeah, exactly.
Kathy:Technically, Darcy was the dog handler. I think ultimately what it came down to is he had a bunch of dogs. He wasn't hanging out.
Burk:And he had them all whipped and scared.
Kathy:And that was...
Mark:Yeah, that was it.
Kathy:And that was pretty great ending. Yeah.
Mark:Great. And they just talked about, you know, uh, you know, uh, Pat's character said, I'll tell you what my favorite, my desert island disc is, is how they kind of.
Burk:And then she says, why don't you tell somebody who cares and it cuts to black and you never find out his favorite record. Right. I really wanted to know.
Mark:I think it was Billy Joel 52nd Street. I want to just say that's what it was.
Kathy:I think you're right. I think it's going to be really white. Yeah.
Burk:But they use that joke. They had a, they had her say a Simon and Garfunkel and then the other guy said Prince.
Kathy:And then like they all kind of the facade started falling away like we're not the cool punk rock. I like everything hardcore. They started kind of just revealing that I really am. I like Prince instead of The Damned or.
Burk:I think he probably said Tubular Bells.
Mark:Anything from Mike Oldfield.
Burk:Hergest Ridge maybe.
Mark:But it's a, you know, it's a really lean. There's not an ounce of fat on this movie. Characters or well developed within the dialogue and you see their transformation, so it's a great 85 minutes.
Burk:And it's suspenseful. That's the thing that's missing in so many movies. I think a lot of people think they're making a suspense film. They put these things in it that they think, okay, if I have somebody doing this, it'll be suspense suspenseful, but it's not. It's. It doesn't always work. But this one, I think the guy understands how you ratchet things up and how you put people in certain situations and how you characterize people and how a character reveals what they can and can't do and they're not just this whimpering cry baby or they're not just this mindless hero and they're not just this person who has the great ideas, the nerd, you know, they're real people. They're there and you feel like, you know, when they do things. I love movies when I watched the people in peril and they do things that I think, oh, that's something that I probably wouldn't have thought of that. That's really smart. That's a lot or things where you were. You're saying that's exactly what I would've done. You know, and what a great weapon a mic stand is. Everybody knows mic stand is a metal bar with a really heavy weight at the end of it.
Kathy:I wouldn't have thought of that.
Burk:So here, you know, there's one shot of the girl standing there where the mic stand and I was like, that is a great weapon. You can swing that around. You hit somebody in the head with that
Kathy:Knocked the gun out of their hands. But I also liked how they made the skinheads, the bad guys, and it wasn't over the top. It wasn't like, you know, this glowering comic book depiction. It was like they were a little complicated, you know, it wasn't just this one note performance by anybody or one note on your idea of what skin heads are.
Burk:Well skinheads are usually the bad guys, right?
Mark:I mean they're bad here obviously, but they're also the. Even this little roles are there some dimension to the character.
Kathy:They're some that are not as certain.
Mark:They're not as certain. that we have to do this. We're a little scared because we don't do this. We're going to get in trouble. That kind of thing.
Burk:That point comes across in the film too that a lot of these guys might not be as into the ideology as they are just into being scared of the leader.
Mark:I think the most ruthless character on their side was actually the dog handler. It seemed like just a bad ass know he was just doing, you know, he's very cold and calculating.
Kathy:He seemed to care about the dogs, but then it's not like I want my dog to die in meat in his teeth, but at the same time he seemed really gentle with them and like it was a really hard complicated.
Burk:But he was exploiting them. Thinking of like Darcy is being gentle with his, with his red lace guys, but he's exploiting them. He's using their, you know, their whatever pit bull nature these people have. This guy is taking a dog, a pit bull, which is normally the sweetest dog in the world, the most loyal creature and he's, he's exploiting that dog with the gentleness and that's what's so creepy about it. He's petting the dog and saying, Oh, I want him to die with meat in his mouth, but it's like you're abusing this beautiful animal.
Mark:How did it, how did he train that dog? Yeah, to do what he wants...
Burk:By abusing it and exploiting its nature.
Kathy:Exactly what Darcy did his troops like. I feel like he was sending in the dogs, this guy was sending in his dogs and it's all like in a way wasn't even the dog or the people who are making the decisions that were being made for them and they just, you know, in a way the dog just trotted pass those people because that wasn't his job to kill these people anymore. Right.
Burk:It's in the dog's nature to do what is master wants and that's what the dog was doing.
Kathy:Deep dive.
Burk:Deep dive.
Kathy:There you go. Probably more information you'd ever need on Green Room.
Burk:Say it again.
Kathy and Mark:Deep Dive.
Burk:That's so cool. I wish I could do that. Deep dive.
Mark:Still sounds pretty good.
Kathy:You'll just have to practice more. All right.
Mark:Well I hope you liked it.
Burk:Well, that's our deep dive. That's what a deep dive is.
Kathy:We'll do with these once in a while.
Burk:A little bit longer than a normal episode.
Kathy:More of a synopsis. Lots of spoilers. It should say that we hosted it said at the beginning versus now.
Burk:Oh yeah. Spoiler.
Kathy:By the way, spoilers.
Burk:But the thing is, let us know if you think that's a good idea. If you want to sort of hear the story of the movie like this and sort of go through it step by step with a lot of, you know.
Mark:Obviously, it makes sense to watch the movie first.
Burk:Yeah. And it's. And it. And maybe we have some of the same ideas and observations you had when you watched it or maybe you think we missed something, you know, let us know.
Kathy:Yeah, let us know what you thought of Green Room.
Burk:And let us know what you think of the whole, the whole idea of deep dive. Oh!
Mark:Congratulations!
Kathy:You just have to not think about it.
Burk:Ah, that's so cool. Let me try it again. Deep Dive.
Kathy:See you're thinking about it.
Burk:You have to not think about it. Don't think about this spoon. Okay. Anyway, that's our deep dive and that's um, that's going to be it for this episode of Cinemondo.
Mark:And don't forget to like us on Twitter at Hashtag Cinemamondopod and on Instagram and Facebook at a Cinemondo podcast. Yeah. Okay. Please do. Thank you.
Burk:Take care Cinemondo signing out.