The Killing Room (2009) Reviews

• Worth watching for the ending

  equazcion2009-07-31

  Let me start by saying that a lot of what you're about to read may seem like spoilers, but all of the following plot information is given within the first 10 minutes of the movie. In this movie, the CIA's secret "MK-Ultra" mind-control experiments of the '70s (which really did occur) seem to still be in operation. Four civilians answer a classified ad seeking volunteers for medical testing, only to be locked in a room together and subjected to psychological and some physical torture, plus a little death. This is not "torture porn" though, and aside from a couple of run-of-the-mill gunshots, it actually doesn't involve much graphic violence at all. While there have been many "locked in a room together for a mysterious and violent experiment" movies, this one is different in that it's told primarily from the perspective of an observer: a doctor who is interviewing for a position at the organization. She has no idea what she's about to observe when she arrives, so she joins the audience in horror as the various aspects of the experiment are revealed. This movie has a lot of problems. The writing, mainly the dialog, seemed a bit lackluster, but the competent acting compensated somewhat for that. I also found the use of the shaky camera a little annoying, as was the use of a few little fake-out sequences meant to make the audience go, "Oh, she was only imagining that." You know the kind. Also, the employees operating the experiment would communicate via crackly radio, using lots of military mumbo-jumbo ("echo-2 commence stimulus foxtrot, wilco"), which seemed almost laughably inappropriate, and disproportionate to coordinating closed-room experiments. It sounded like they were an airport tower trying to land planes in a blizzard. It struck me as overly melodramatic, trying too hard to make it sound like a military operation. But for all its problems, this movie will surprise you in the end with its relevance. I'm still feeling it sink in. The ending made this movie entirely worth watching (if not good), which I'm glad I did. There isn't much I can say about it without spoiling it, so I'll just say that it's often our artists -- our filmmakers, our writers -- who tell us where we might be headed. Sorry if that sounds cryptic. You'll have to watch the movie. :)

• Awful psychological thriller.

  poolandrews2010-05-19

  The Killing Room starts as four ordinary volunteers who have signed up to be part of a psychological research experiment & lead into a small white room, the four strangers have never met each other before & that each get on with filling in a questionnaire. A Dr. Phillips (Peter Stormare) enters the room & give a little speech about the purpose of the study & then suddenly takes out a gun & shoots one of the volunteers through the head killing her. Panic sweeps the room & Dr. Phillip's leaves, the door is locked behind him leaving the three remaining volunteers trapped inside with a dead body. All part of an extreme experiment to test how far a person can be pushed casualties were inevitable, but what is the ultimate purpose of the experiment & who does Dr. Phillip's work for? Directed by Jonathan Liebesman this psychological thriller apparently had the working title Manbreak & tires to be clever & even a little topical by using emotive issues & themes that are reported all to regularly in the world's media, while it tries to be shocking & clever it isn't & I have to say I thought it was pretty crap. For the first 80 odd minutes of this 90 odd minute film there's little to talk about, four people in a very bland white room, one gets killed with the majority of the rest of the time just spent on them talking with scenes of Dr. Phillip's & his scientist mates (we know they are scientist's because they wear long white laboratory coats even though there's no laboratories anywhere to be seen) watching them & as a counter balance to their coldness fresh young recruit Emily Reilly doesn't like what she see's, this goes on & on for what seems like hours. At least in a film like Saw there traps & puzzles while here in The Killing Room there is nothing & it's incredibly dull & repetitive to watch. Then there's the final 10 minutes, oh God the final 10 minutes. It turns out that the nasty US Government are running this strange experiment to find the next wave of homegrown suicide bombers or civilian weapons as the men in suits (& long white laboratory coats) call them. What on Earth makes the them think putting people though this will suddenly turn them into suicide bombers? It's a reach stretch to say that because someone is willing to sacrifice themselves in a very controlled situation that they will then happily commit suicide for you & kill potentially thousands of innocent people in the process. Aren't suicide bombers fanatics & extremist's that would be willing to die for their cause? The twist just doesn't work & the idea of using the subject of suicide bombers as a cheap twist is in bad taste, The Killing Room is a film with a twist that tries to have a point & meaning but comes across as not having a damned clue. The character's are as lifeless & basic as you can imagine, it's hard to root for any of the volunteers & the scientist's (hey, they do wear those laboratory coats so they are scientist's) come across as very cold & inhuman. I suppose the 'now for phase 2' ending leaves things open for a sequel, I shudder the very thought. Event though 90% of The Killing Room is set in a single, plain white run of the mill room director Liebesman still manages to make this thing look ugly with a constantly twitching camera, fast edits & deliberately out of focus extreme close-up foregrounds obscuring the character's. There's a bit of blood splatter but no real violence or gore worth mentioning. An extremely repetitive, bland & dull film with a ridiculous twist that didn't work The Killing Room is also lacking in tension & suspense as my major emotion while watching it was boredom. Also I don't know if it was just my copy but a lot of the dialogue sounded muffled as the three volunteers whispered to each other in increasingly panicked tones, I actually found it quite hard to understand what was being said on many occasions. Filmed in late 2007 The Killing Room wasn't released anywhere until 2009 & it's easy to see why there were no takers for over a year, not a very good film & not a particularly easy sell as nothing really happens in it. It would certainly be hard to cut a decent trailer for it that made it look exciting. The acting is alright & rather surprisingly Nick Cannon is actually the husband of pop superstar diva Mariah Carey. Timothy Hutton once won an Oscar while Peter Stormare is better than this. The Killing Room is a terrible psychological thriller that tries to be clever & shocking & emotive, it fails. A really boring thriller set in a single room full of faceless character's & a dumb twist ending just to round off the torment.

• Truly Unique

  catfish-er2009-11-13

  I saw THE KILLING ROOM on Showtime last night. I found it to be a very unique suspense/thriller. Not since THE CUBE have I seen such a truly unique, original movie like the KILLING ROOM. The action and tension never lets up. Your mind is always trying to guess what's going to happen next. The characters are compelling. And, the actors' performances are incredibly strong. The premise, which includes the CIA's secret "MK-Ultra" mind-control experiments of the '70s adds credibility. As such, I found the movie completely plausible. The more we learn about the characters; and, their motives, the more the suspense; and, drama intensifies. It was very engaging.

• Great psychological thriller.

  FioMnsfld2009-08-02

  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.

• Runs out of ideas

  GloriousGooner2010-03-19

  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.