The Room
released in 2019
www.ink2quill.com

“The Room” is an American, scifi, horror, drama, thriller film produced by Jacques-Henri Bronckart, Olivier Bronckart, Liliane Eche, Yael Fogiel, Laetitia Gonzalez and Christel Henon. It was directed by Christian Volckman who was also one of the writers along with Eric Forestier, Gaia Guasti, Sabrina B. Karine and Vincent Ravalec. It stars Olga Kurylenko, Kevin Janssens, Joshua Wilson, John Flanders, Francis Chapman, Vince Drews, Marianne Bourg, Oscar Lesage, Carole Weyers, Michael Kahya, Jean-Louis Sbille and many others. “The Room” received much acclaim outside the US, namely in the biggest film countries in Europe.

The Room IMDb webpage

“The Room” is the story of a young couple who move into a new house that is anything but normal. So as not to give away too many spoilers, there is a seemingly old and powerful machine hidden inside that house that will plunge the couple´s lives into what could be called a supernatural horror story. This seriously could have been an episode of the Twilight Zone. Although you really should give it its own miniseries to develop the story properly. Mat, played by Kevin Janssens, and Kate, played by Olga Kurylenko, are move into a house that they later find had a sinsiter past. While renovating their new house they discover a room that turns out to be part of some big machine with chord like wires knotted and running through most of the house with spider webs and grime everywhere.

There is plenty foreshadowing of things to come but the first one is when Kat finds a dead bird. She brings the dead bird outside to bury it and when she places it on the ground and turns her head to talk to her husband the bird is gone when she turns her head back again. As the story develops we know that the body of the dead bird was reduced to ashes, something Kate did not notice at the time or know the reason why.

When the couple learn of the tragic past of the house they do research and discover that the people who lived before them were a couple called Paul and Madeline Schaeffer. The identity of the person who killed them was not known but as it turns out he was locked up in an insane asylum.

The big secret of this house, because this house has a very big secret indeed, is that it can grant wishes. So, a person in the room can wish for something, the lights in the house will flicker, and that thing will appear. So, Mat goes wild and wishes for works of art, money even a bottle of whiskey at the very start of his wishfest. But this house has its limits. The couple soon finds out that whatever they wish for will disentagrate if taken outside the house. They decide to test the house with their greatest wish of all and that´s when this story turns from a dream to a nightmare.

There are so many stories of people finding themselves in positions where they are granted their most desired wishes. So many of those stories are so good because they explore stupidity, greed and lack of any kind of forethought and this film is no exception. It never occured to this couple that they had a supernatural mystery on their hands. Even after hearing the house´s history and seeing the possibly ancient and alien machine they never thought to proceed with caution and that was their big mistake.

This is similar to stories of genies in lamps that grant wishes. You have some people that prosper from their wishes after a long and dangerous adventure and then you have fools that are done in by what they wish for. These stories are like tests of survival for the protagonists. While the story develops you get to see where they made mistakes and where they practiced sound judgement.

“The Room” is a very good film that should probably seen twice to catch everything that is going on, escpecially the end with the light flickering in the motel room. A lot goes on in the story with many twists and turns. Most people do not catch everything that happens the first time. They just don´t follow things. That is why it should have been a miniseries, to slow the story down and provide further explanations. So, don´t just see it once. See it twice or more if necessary.

So, if you think that you got the whole story did the couple ever leave the house?

John Ink2Quill

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