The Black Room (1982) User Reviews

Amusing and steamy

[ThrownMuse · 6/10 · 8 October 2007]

Larry, a dashing family man, decides he needs some escapism in his life and rents a room to fulfill his darkest fantasies. The room he finds is within a Hollywood Hills mansion and is decorated seductively in black with lots of candles and drink. His doting wife goes along with the fantasy, but what she doesn't know (if you can believe it) is that the lurid tales of prozzies and pickups he's ravished in the room are actually true. And what Larry doesn't know is that the kooky siblings from whom he rents the "black room" are after blood and not his rent! This is a quirky and unique low-budget film that delivers in some areas. It manages to go from creepy to sizzling hot to awkwardly funny from scene to scene. The acting is excellent for a low budget-80s film, especially by the four relatively unknown leads. Jimmy Stathis (Larry) manages to pull off loving father and husband in some scenes and complete sleazeball in others. He's a character that is difficult to root for (and even watch at times), but thankfully he isn't the only protagonist in the film. His wife (played by the fantastic Clara Perryman) smiles and laughs along with Larry's kinky fantasies that don't involve her, which is an aspect of the story that comes across as silly considering she knows that he really does have this "black room." But once the story gets going and she becomes more involved with the plot, it's easy to get past this. The demented landlord sibs steal every scene they're in. Stephen Knight is believably lecherous and Cassandra Gava is both sexy and insane as his caretaker and BDSM-loving sister. The atmosphere, especially in the titular room, is eerie and alluring. The score is inventive and one of the movie's high points. So while some of the plot premises are a bit brow-raising, and the horror in the film didn't seem to fully lift off, this is an original and steamy genre movie in which I found enough things to enjoy. Look for Christopher McDonald and Linnea Quigley in small roles.

So long, kids! Mommy and daddy are off to play kinky and adulterous sex-games!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 28 August 2019]

Well, if nothing else, "The Black Room" at least deserves a few extra points for originality! In an era where most American horror were derivative and tepid slasher knock-offs, this film comes with a totally creative and unique (albeit utterly grotesque) storyline that is certainly trashier, sleazier and nastier than all those dull slashers. The protagonist of "The Black Room", a seemingly average middle-class guy named Larry, is a heroic role-model for all of use horny males! Dig this: because his sex life with his wife Robyn suffers from routine boredom and children always interrupting at the exact wrong moment, Larry invents a fantasy place - the black room - where he satisfies his sexual need with other women. He shares his lewd fantasies with Robyn in order to excite her, but Larry actually also does rent such a room for real! He picks up horny students and prostitutes like it's the most normal thing in the world and takes them to his secret for sweet-loving, while later that same night in the marital bed his wife whisper: "Tell me again about the black room, honey". Ha! Larry is awesome! What he doesn't know, however, is that the proprietors of the room, a very seductive brother and sister, are sick psychos that murder the lust objects in the black room and transfuse their blood into the brother's body because he supposedly has a rare blood disease! "The Black Room" obviously isn't an Award-winning masterpiece, but it sure is a compelling, unpredictable and darn hot 80s horror oddity! When Robyn discovers Larry's deceitful little secret, and plots her revenge together with houseowner Jason, the film resembles more of an early 70s European sexploitation movie rather than an 80s US horror flick; - especially with that randomly bonkers vampire twist-ending! He may only have made less than a handful of films, but the least you can say about writer and (co-) director Norman Thaddeus Vane is that he tried different things (see also "Frightmare" that was released one year later). Beautiful people in this film as well, both males and females. It's one of the earliest films of Christopher MacDonald and Linnea Quigley never looked prettier in her life.

A Modern Day Vampire Tale Of Lust And Obsession.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 5/10 · 3 July 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of The Black Room; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.25 Direction: 1.00 Pace: 0.75 Acting: 0.75 Enjoyment: 1.00

TOTAL: 4.75 out of 10.00

I do like a good vampyre story and love an original take on their mythology. The Black Room was so close to being both; sadly, it slightly misses the mark with both.

The story centres around two couples. Jason and Bridgette are a brother and sister living in the Hollywood hills. They make an extra buck or a hundred by renting out a room in their home for wayward spouses. The couple offers secrecy and privacy to do whatever their sleazy little heart desires. Enter Larry, a husband who likes to treat women like whores and hookers but cannot bring himself to treat his wife, Robin, in the same fashion, though she's willing. So he starts to fund Jason and Bridgette's lifestyle. But, how long can he keep the deception from the missus? And, what will she do when she finds out? The writer and director, Norman Vane, adds an even darker element into the mix. There's something not quite right with the owners of the black room. Vane unravels their secrets and sins as we progress through the narrative. Though his characterisations are decent, they needed to be better, because the story is primarily character-driven. Larry, Robin, and their family are credible. However, Jason and Bridgette required more substance. Granted, they are strange individuals, but there's something diaphanous about them, particularly Jason. His character demands to be more prolific and imposing. And the relationship he has with his sister craved more attention. In the beginning, you're unsure who these people are to one another. When we learn of their kinship, instead of the story becoming unclouded, it gets a tad muddier. The uncertainty halts the couple's growth and, in turn, hinders the story and the viewer's enjoyment.

Director Vane is comparable to Writer Vane. The filming suffers some of the same ailments as the scripting. Vane could have used some easy camera techniques the emphasise Jason's character. Always shoot him from at a slight upward angle, making him more imposing. Have the actor deliver his lines with more zest and zeal. Etc! But sadly, he merely points the camera and captures whatever's on offer. There are myriad opportunities to increase the audience's interest. All it would have taken is to get slightly creative with the filming - A few engaging pans, stimulating camera angles, and entrancing close-ups. Nothing too fancy or complicated. Just a taste of eye candy. The worst thing about the movie is the tempo. It's on the slow side and could have been faster overall and even faster at the kills to build the excitement and tension.

The cast is a mishmash. There are moments when each individual performer is respectable and times when they are below-par. Fortunately, they are never terrible in the same scenes, and they somewhat level out the unevenness of their performances.

I am unsure whether I would recommend The Black Room to anyone. As it stands, it's just okay but nothing special, though it easily could have been. If you see it on a streaming service, and there's nowt else worthy of your attention, then check it out. But if you miss it - don't worry, you're not missing much. Maybe Blumhouse can do a modern remake - it deserves the attention - and remove their hands from destroying the classics.

Turn on those bloody lights, or you won't be able to read my Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chiller lists and see where I ranked The Black Room.

Take Care & Stay Well.

weird movie

[trashgang · 4/10 · 2 September 2010]

Damn, those good old days. This movie is something weird. It is made in 84, full slasher period. But this isn't a slasher, I even don't know were to place it. Face it, the first minutes all you see is nudity. Due the fact that it is an OOP it is even harder to see it unless you live over here in Europe were it became available as an freebee on the Bloodstained Romance DVD, but even that one is a hard to get already. So I thought, is this a soft erotic flick or what, because the cover is a nude girl looking towards a camera. After a while when a person hire a room, the black one, to cheat on his wife it becomes clear what it's all about, but again, first you will have to watch a nude girl dancing and doing weird stuff. It's when the tenant brings his first hooker with him that the film changes into a horror flick. Once his wife gets to know what the black room is it changes a bit into a revenge (sexual) movie. Again, weird scene's are shown, the score is creepy too and more and more you will get to know the why and who about the brother and sister hiring the black room. At the end you will be surprised again about the brother and sister...weird story, strange editing, creepy score ( a lot of delay on voices...). but the other reason why people want to see it is because Linnea Quigley is in it, but she's only 5 minutes in it and stays dressed. Still, worth watching.

Pretty twisted Horror film, that has a few good moments here and there, with some creepy Blood transfusion scenes, however it's just too dull for it's own good

[callanvass · 4/10 · 2 April 2006]

Pretty twisted Horror film, that has a few good moments here and there, with some creepy Blood transfusion scenes, however it's just too dull for it's own good. All the characters are OK, and the story while had a lot of potential is rather dull, however the blood transfusion scenes looked frighteningly real, and as a result they were extremely disturbing. It's well made and decently written, and it started out really interesting, but it just couldn't keep up the pace, plus I found the ending to be disappointing. Linnea Quigley has no more then a very small role in this so, I was also disappointed about that, and Stephen Knight does a good job as the lead, as he was pretty twisted, plus I got this in a DVD Horror set called A Taste Of Evil, along with a bunch of other Horror films. There is lots of blood,however it's not all that gory, and for it's low budget it was pretty well done, however as I said it just couldn't sustain it's interest. This is a pretty twisted Horror film, that has a few good moments here and there, with some creepy blood transfusion scenes, however it's just too dull for it's own good, I would pass,but I guess it's worth a watch if you have nothing better to do. The Direction is OK. Elly Kenner&Norman Thaddeus Vane do an OK job here with decent camera work, and doing a good job on it's low budget, however the pace is too inconsistent for my liking. The Acting is actually alright. Stephen Knight is great as the lead, he was creepy, twisted, sick, and gave a very creepy performance, the most creepy thing about it though was he seemed like a normal person. Linnea Quigley did well in her small role. Christopher McDonald is OK I guess sin his short time. Rest of the cast are OK as well. Overall I would pass, but I guess it's worth a watch if you have nothing absolutely better to do. *1/2 out of 5

Unappealing horror picture

[lor_ · 7 February 2023]

My review was written in March 1984 after a screening at Empire theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"The Black Room" is a pretentious, thoroughly unappealing horror picture whose poster and advertising promise a dark, sexy opus that does not materialize on screen. Filmed in January 1981, delayed release looks to grim box office.

The script by Norman Thaddeus Vane (who also takes a co-director credit) awkwardly meshes two separate stories: (1) Jason (Stephen Knight) is a California artist living with his beautiful model sister Bridget (Cassandra Gaviola). He suffers from a blood disease that requires replacement of his blood at least twice a week, and duo are given to ensnaring unwary young visitors in their mansion's Black Room, photographing their sex acts through a one-way mirror, and then killing them for their blood. Corpses are neatly buried in coffins in the garden.

(2): Larry (Jim Stathis) is a young married man having sexual problems with his wife Robin (Clara Perryman). Larry answers Jason's ad for a low-cost home in the Hollywood Hills and starts acting out his sexual fantasies in the Black Room with various women he picks up. Unbeknownst to him Jason and Bridget are killing his partners for their blood.

Absurd finale has both Jason and presumab;ly normal sister Bridget turning into zombies after Larry and Robin kill them, a supernatural tangent not justified by the preceding footage and guaranteed to anger a paying audience.

Film's sole highlight is a lengthy showcasint role for the exotically beautiful model-turned-actress Cassandra Gaviola (aka Gava), who later had small parts in "Conan the Barbarian", "Nighrt Shift" and "High Road to China". Casting of Stephen Knight. Who looks like an entirely different nationality, as Cassandra's brother is an error.

Technically, the film is sloppy, with frequent shots from the window side (peering into the Black Room) producing mirror images of the watcher. Picture is also an object lesson for itinerant filmmakers in how not to use the Steadicam.

A special film that works despite budget limitations

[Nate-9 · 7/10 · 25 February 1999]

The Black Room turned out to be an engrossing semi-masterpiece. I was expecting mundane from this forgotten horror, but what I saw was more kinky, twisted and sick than I'd imagined. Something about the acting, the script , the directing or everything was different than other films. It also has the most graffically depicted blood transfusions I've ever seen. They were painstakingly slow over these shots. I had to turn away....gallons of blood... It's a shame Clara Perryman didn't do much after this film. She was excellent and made the troubled relationship with her and Jim Stathis {also great} possibly more interesting than the horror elements. Linnea Quigley plays a small role as the babysitter. She says maybe 5 words.

Disappointing, dull, and almost unwatchable without much going for it

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 2/10 · 1 November 2023]

Trying to get away from his family, a man finds a new apartment and turns it into a bachelor pad as a place to sleep with a multitude of women hitchhikers he picks up, but when a series of strange disappearances plague the women who visited the place realize the landlords are murdering the women to fix his blood-disease.

This is a terribly dull and completely worthless horror entry. The fact that there's hardly any horror at all in the film is the biggest and most damaging prospect, effectively making it so dull and lifeless that the film does almost nothing at all during it's running time. The fact that it rests so much on it's relationships between the two couples at the center of the film rather than it's horror is where it falls foul, making them the central point when they aren't that good or exciting to begin with. The sibling angle is so lamely done it's still up in the air at the end of the film, as it seems to incorporate aspects of both a brother-sister bond as well as an incestuous air between them in certain scenes. The other angle with the marriage-on-the-rocks story is not that much better, full of never-ending scenes that are purely not that scary at all. That's the film's biggest problem, nothing in here is considered scary, and what happens between them is not that great at providing anything to counter the boredom these non-horror sequences create. The amount of time spent on those angles are nothing worthwhile at all, providing no scenes of value and just continuing a storyline that isn't all to concerned with horror aspects at all. That also means that we don't get anything remotely close to the horror genre until the end, with only a mildly interesting chase scene and the frequent nudity to provide the goods until then. The scares are missing, the gore is non-existent until the end, and the kills are relegated to simply being just the scenes of the victim being drained of blood while being setup in the blood-transfusion contraption. A chance to highten the tension when she discovers the location could've been something but it turns into a secondary seduction angle with the two that never crosses over into anything else so it leaves such a bad aftertaste that there's almost no need for it. Even the fact that it's a sleazy-feeling film is neutered by the fact that it's only in one scene and despite all the different scenes in here that provided opportunity to do so, it doesn't offer anything up, making the film even more of a cheat and providing even more flaws to hate against it. There's hardly anything worthwhile about this one. The fact that the film's lone action scene in the middle of the film comes from a rather nice chase scene is to be commended as there are a couple good things about it. The fact that it's a rather energetic scene with the different characters going out after the escaped victim through the woods which not only has somewhat chilling cat-and-mouse confrontatioins butalso a dark conclusion and it makes for an effective atmosphere. The sleaze factor here is also rather nice, with the way it manages to create an odd and somewhat unnatural feeling with the relationships it creates with the two couples mixing it up as well as the general fact of what they're doing offering up some rather nice sleaze. The last bit in here that works is the film's nicely done climax, which is where the main action occurs. From the chase through the house to the different stalk-and-slash tactics used, it offers up some interest. Further helping it is the film's only real gore scenes, which aren't much to talk about but at least it offers up something. These here are all that work for the film.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence, Nudity, several sex scenes and drug use.

Don't date anyone in the Black Room

[TVM-Liveforever · 7/10 · 17 April 2015]

A man rents a room a brother & sister so he can have extramarital affairs away from his own house, however his landlords are draining the blood from everyone who enters the room.

An extremely dark and original take on the vampire genre. Set in the modern day (1981 when it was made) unlike many vampire movies of the time, the setting does give it much more credibility than its Gothic counterparts. The draining sequences are very dramatic, no fangs here but a massive machine which pumps out the blood into some very gory scenes. The performances are a lot better than you might think, the 4 leads are surprisingly good as is most of the supporting cast. The second half of the movie is great, tension mounts very well, the pace improves and the last 10-15mins are superb and quite scary at times. The film does have a couple of issues though, in the first half pacing is quite sluggish, as the set up sequences to key scenes take an age and at times fail at keeping the viewers attention, editing is also quite strange at the beginning (although that could just have been the copy I watched 1983 UK VHS).

Overall a very good surprising watch, if you enjoy weird fairly gory horror there should be plenty for you to enjoy here. Interestingly this quite rare horror was put onto the DPP's section 3 list here in the UK (meaning the police could seize it from the shelves), a real shame as this well made little horror didn't deserve the negative attention it got.

The script writer needs to find a different profession

[phuckracistgop · 1/10 · 16 February 2024]

I stopped and deleted this POS movie when the unfaithful husband picked up the hitchhiker who out of the blue decided to have sex with him under the weakest pretenses.

This girl didn't know him from a bucket of paint and I guess that this writer feels that the general public is a bunch of maganuts dumb enough to fall for this nonsense. It is an insult to anyone's intellect who possesses an Intelligence Quotient above 20.

I decided then and there that this movie would not only be predictable, but also too stupid for words. Low budget or no budget, a two year old could write a better script using a Crayon.

My advise to any potential viewers would be to pick another movie, because watching paint dry is a much better option.

An effectively creepy and perverse low-budget 80's horror vampire sleeper

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 22 July 2007]

Sleazy and bored hubby Larry (well played by Jimmy Stathis) ain't too happy with his marriage to his neglected wife Robin (a fine and touching performance by Clara Perryman). Larry decides to rent a creepy black room in a swanky Hollywood Hills mansion from the strange Jason (muscular Stephen Knight) and his equally odd, but alluring sister Bridget (the strikingly lovely and exotic Cassandra Gaviola) in order to put some much-needed pizazz back into his dreary love life. Larry uses the room to have sex with young ladies. Unbeknownst to Larry, Jason in turn drains the young women of their blood and shoots up their precious life fluid with a needle. Ably directed by Elly Kenner and Norman Thaddeus Vane (the latter also wrote and directed the strictly so-so "Frightmare"), with solid acting from the entire cast (Linnea Quigley has a nifty small role as a near victim babysitter towards the end of the movie), a compellingly bizarre and twisted story, a genuinely spooky atmosphere, several aberrant touches (Jason and Bridget like to spy on Larry as he's doing just what you think with the girls he picks up), and a harrowing conclusion, this pleasingly offbeat, inspired and unjustly overlooked low-budget horror sleeper deserves to be both better known and more widely seen by fans of enjoyably deviant outré cinema.

Woah!!!

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 21 September 2021]

Elly Kenner was born in Israel and went from working in the advertising industry and movies to creating documentaries about healing, channeling and mysticism.

Norman Thaddeus Vaine wrote the Herman's Hermits film Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter, as well as Lola - which has a romance between a forty-something porn writing Charles Bronson and a teen-something Susan George in which seems like the most male fantasy movie of all time* - and directed Shadow of the Hawk and Frightmare.

Together, they would make The Black Room, a movie made at the very start of the AIDS crisis and the end of the free loving 70s. The world was about to get very different. And this movie is about to get very weird.

Larry (Jimmy Stathis) has decided that married life is dragging him down, so he rents a room somewhere in the Hollywood Hills from brother and sister Bridget (Cassandra Gava, who was the sorceress who made love to Arnold in Conan the Barbarian) and Jason (Stephen Knight, Necromancy).

Jason has a rare blood disorder which means that he must constantly get blood transfusions, but perhaps he's something more than human. After all, he and his sister have been capturing Larry's partners and using them for their blood. And oh yeah, they're watching him couple with them, too.

Much like the need for blood, Larry has a need to be with other women. And he loves telling his wife Robin (Clara Perryman) his fantasies while they're in bed together and she goes along with the game until she learns that this is more than a fantasy. And now, once she discovers the secret apartment that her husband has, she rents out her own place within the mansion.

Now, she's not getting just the stories. She's living them with Jason. Of course, when her husband discovers what's happening, he's enraged that she's giving herself to others and demands that they both stop. But can you stop taking drugs and live a normal life when you've had the rush of kink and secrets?

But now, Jason and Bridget are exacting their own penalty on the couple by taking their children. And even if they can die, the twosome keep returning to the dead, because as Robin wonders, "Can people like that ever die?"

Is this a furniture movie? Just look at the black room itself: black velvet curtains, wax candles burning and that table that looks like it's glowing? Sexy, right? Well, one thing is for sure: this is a section 3 video nasty, a movie that lingers on scenes of needles and track marks and blood.

The thing is, in the hopes of getting back to the sexual life they had before kids and suburbia, our protagonists must be unwilling accessories to the murders of prostitutes, all blood for the veins of someone whose own source has become contaminated. You know, I kind of would prefer this film if it never was supernatural and was just creepy, with a brother and sister who sleep with one another suddenly dating a married couple who they drag deeper and deeper into hell.

Two more reasons to love this: an impossibly. Young Linnea Quigley as the couple's babysitter and an incredibly youthful Christopher McDonald - yes, Shooter McGavin - as the college student who watches Larry take his woman while he writes about it for his doctoral thesis because, yes, the 70s.

The copy that I found is as dark and beat up as it gets. And you know, I might love that this is how I'm watching this instead of a pristine blu ray boutique reissue because I'm seeing something that so many have watched over and over, battering the original until what ended up online was the last media itself's last gasp.

In Nightmare USA - thanks to Hidden Films for bringing this up - Vane revealed that The Black Room was based on his real life, as he cheated on his wife in his own black room with Penthouse centerfolds that he met while working at that publication. Wow, huh?

*It's totally based on Vane's life, as he married 16-year-old model Sarah Caldwell in the mid-1960s when he was 38.

Sexy time in The Black Room!

[cynet-52332 · 5/10 · 2 January 2024]

OK the movie beginning sequence starts of with some sexy time which sets the movie up on what is to come forward in terms of shock horror! The main lead character Larry is so horny I am surprsied he doesn't carry a box of tissues round with him. Anyway Larry wants the room to fullfill his lusts of banging hot chicks! So basically to cut a long story short the owners are serial killers who just enjoy killing their tenants and why not? OK the overall ark of story is kinda dumb and makes little sense to normality but hey it's a cheap horror flick! Is this worth your time? Yes in truth as it's an 80's flick and you can never go wrong with an 80's horror flick. Gave it 5 as the music is naff and the dialogue isn't great but what the hell it's worth the entertainment in sexy time value!

Vampiric blood transfusion.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 11 September 2010]

The titular Black Room is the room where some of the darkest sexual fantasies are brought to life.It's candle-lit and secretly hidden in the mansion of doom.Brother and sister Jason and Brigette rent it for sexually adventurous people.Unfortunately Jason has a rare blood disease and he needs fresh blood transfusions in order to stay alive.The murderous duo kills most of the people who rent the Black Room and drain them of their blood.Their next victims are going to be Larry and Robin-a married couple with two kids."The Black Room" is an erotic and suitably dark horror film with some nudity and graphic gore including Bridgette's neck stabbing by Robin in the finale.Linnea Quigley has a small cameo as a babysitter.8 blood transfusions out of 10.

Intelligent and Atmospheric

[michigindie · 8/10 · 11 December 2023]

Although I was an avid thriller movie fan in high school when this came out, it somehow escaped me. Upon hearing of it for the first time recently, I watched it and was pleasantly surprised by its overall good quality, handsome/well dressed leading men and moody score.

This is primarily a psychological thriller with an intelligent script and a deliberate pace. The writer, director and cast accurately depict the bored, horny husband looking for kicks and the tearful wife who becomes a hard, bitter feminist as a result. Thrown into the mix are a pair of siblings whose hilltop mansion is something of a spider's web for the unlucky.

Although other reviewers found the film to be sleazy and raunchy, this reviewer considers the smut scenes to be quite tame. Curiously, most of the coupling is done woman-on-top, save one very brief interlude between a college punk and the bitter, weepy wife. Had this been released primarily in Europe, it probably would have done well; American audiences, on the contrary, tend to be much less sophisticated and patient. Americans love farce and other forms of low-brow comedy, usually favoring the ridiculous. "The Black Room" however, is at its core a serious character study with a few dabs of horror thrown in towards the end.

Worth a look for adults interested in "grown up horror".