The Killing Room (2009)

Director:

Jonathan Liebesman

Writers:

Gus Krieger (writer)
Ann Peacock (writer)

Release Date:

14 November 2009 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Four individuals sign up for a psychological research study only to discover that they are now subjects of a brutal, classified government program. |

Plot Keywords:

Wedding Ring | Punched In The Face | Vent | Martyrdom | Death

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 24	8:25 PM	SHOW
Sun. Nov. 29	6:15 PM	SHOW
Fri. Dec. 4	12:30 AM	SHOW

Cast

Nick Cannon	...	Paul Brodie
Clea DuVall	...	Kerry Isalano
Timothy Hutton	...	Crawford Haines
Chloë Sevigny	...	Ms. Reilly
Peter Stormare	...	Dr. Phillips
Shea Whigham	...	Tony Mazzolla
Anoop Kaur Sikand	...	Nurse
Bill Stinchcomb	...	Cope
Meade Patton	...	Forsythe
Luke Sexton	...	Orderly #1
Tim J. Smith	...	Orderly #2 (as T. Joel Smith)
Michael Byrnes	...	Orderly #3
Gus Krieger	...	Prisoner #1

Also Known As:

Manbreak (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violent content and language.

Runtime:

Germany:93 min (European Film Market)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Japan:PG12 | Netherlands:16 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Eleven Eleven Films

a cold, intense thriller about choosing the "right" candidate

You may have heard of experiments conducted over the years, done in a control group (or maybe not), where people are put in a room and men in white coats look on and listen through glass walls or other such rooms and watch as (in quotes) "things happen" between or to the people. One such project, the MK Ultra, in the 1970's, had people in a control group taking drugs and observing their actions. What we learn in the Killing Room- based on these experiments- is that the program has been 'refined' over the years into what it is now: an experiment in testing who will be the last man standing in one room, and that one man will be, more than likely, willing to follow any command, chiefly to die for his country. And, as it turns out, here, the people running the experiment know who is really the top contender within a minute of their being in the room.

The film of The Killing Room is a series of really tense scenes that have characters in a room figuring out what to do juxtaposed with people up in an observation room; one of them, Chloe Sevigny, plays a newcomer who may join the organization - if she has the right stuff for it. Not every moment is cling-to-your-chair suspenseful, but rather it's director Jonathan Liebesman giving the audience a slow-burn; the clock keeps ticking from two hours down to none for the three people in the room to answer a question (it starts as four but one is shot in the head just to start things off), and depending on who answers it right, one may (or may not) die. In the meantime we see Dr. Philipps (Stormare) and his new possible underling (Sevigny) watch in clinical detail how everything unfolds, punctuated by sounds of voice-over from the other technicians and doctors observing and watching the actions.

The pace is never lacking, specially since it's a short feature length movie, and it works best as a psychological horror piece around what characters will do next. This includes Sevigny's Reilly, who one suspects will be the one that the film will become about. It does in part since we watch and wonder if she'll break away from the insane experiment, or stick with it and become as bloodless as Storemare. But really the best scenes are in that white room, and the details of the characters as they try and figure out their situation from moment to moment. Things like the blood that they spread on the wall so as to read the names of former people in the room; the questions and the answers that the men have to figure out and stick their answers to (or not); the non-pattern of the numbers counting down without consistency.

And the performances meet up to the standards needed: it's not a Saw movie full of horrid melodrama and twists, and Timothy Hutton and (surprisingly) Nick Cannon meet up to what is required of them, and then some. We do care about what will happen to them, even as they're under such duress that they come apart at the seams. The horror is in anticipation, imagining what could happen next, which is almost impossible to figure. If Liebesman has a great control over this, he has less control over other things that aren't quite as excellent, such as a music composition that is over-laid in some scenes (some of this should just be silent and be more affecting) or just too much in others. And by the very end you will feel so drained that you'll wonder what exactly was the point of it - it doesn't have anything very entertaining, but that's the point. The Killing Room leaves you pondering the inhumanity of people who stop at nothing to get their end goals. Who should die isn't as crucial as Who decides who lives and who doesn't. At this, the film is worth a look.