The Black Room stars Species’ Natasha Henstridge and Lukas Hassel as a married couple, Jennifer and Paul, who move into their first house fully aware that an unfortunate accident happened in the basement, but unaware of its supernatural cause. Will Jen and Paul figure it out before it is too late?
The Black Room is a bad movie, which I cannot recommend unless you watched classic horror movies in the 1970s and 1980s like The Entity or From Beyond and want to see a movie that pays homage to those films, and everyone is in on the joke. It felt as if everyone deliberately wanted to make a bad movie and was aiming for a high camp meter. Without that background, the whole sexploitation vibe is a thinly veiled excuse to show naked women moaning and writhing around, which it is. By placing that theme in today’s context, the film is extra absurd, which is why I think it is a deliberate joke. The film captures the aesthetic and sensibilities of a period when spectrophilia was the Porky’s or Revenge of the Nerds of horror. The behavior depicted on screen lacks consent and is definitely repugnant, but it also provides a venue to audiences who want to leer at naked pretty women completely oblivious that the viewers, filmmakers and heroes of this film are objectifying and rapey. These types of films rarely consider the psychological effect that this action would have on the objects of their unwanted lust. At least horror occasionally considered it after making the women eager participants until they became aware of what was happening. It is rape by deception, but depicted as if the person is having great orgasms until they realize that it is not a dream or their significant other. Horror has always used nudity and sexuality to titillate audiences, but spectrophilia provides a perverse benefit-it is not technically a graphic sex scene if only one person is involved so the filmmaker gives viewers this prurient opportunity to watch a naked person have sex without the pesky problem of another person getting in the way of seeing everything. It also explains why Dr. Stella Immanuel resonates with so many people-horror movies!
The Black Room knowingly revels in such antics complete with a housekeeping reference to bukake (if you do not know what it is, do not look it up), but it works as a comedy of errors about how milestones such as buying a house can actually drive a wedge between a couple and change them. The film briefly references issues of money, legacy and advancement as the ultimate mood killer, i.e. being forced into roles as homeowners, hosts and proper married couples that forces them to behave in ways that they did not before. The goal may strengthen the image, but weakens the health of their marriage. When I was a kid and watched in disbelief as a couple or family knowingly moved into a house with a violent history, I would wonder why anyone would be so stupid, but cut to decades later, and I have friends who consider homes with active drug dealers next door, asbestos or sit on top of active volcanoes. Houses are ridiculously expensive, and maybe you would buy a house with a demonic history if it was nice enough, and the price is right. The blood of Jesus is free. An exorcism is inexpensive compared to property costs and taxes. Once the devil leaves, your value will skyrocket.
The Black Room won me over when the incubus finally finds a host and does its best to fit in to normal society while failing miserably, but not so much that he gets called out immediately. The idea of an incubus trying to behave was worth my time. I loved that its behavior was not that different from the average entitled jerk in a restaurant, and the actor deserves props for chewing the scenery without breaking out into laughter. I wish that it had sustained that tone a little longer before things briefly go all Evil Dead then it returns to the theme of a freak in the suburbs and saved that havoc for the denouement, but I suppose that it was awhile before feedings. I still think that moment was actually splashier than the denouement so I wish that it was saved for Christmas. The movie did a great job of getting us familiar with and invested in the person pre-possession so it was not easy to dismiss his fate as some characters. The contrast was noticeable and while a little over the top like a Saturday Night live skit, not so outre that it made the other characters seem dumb for not noticing.
There are nice little moments of humor on The Black Room thanks to Tiffany Shepis who plays Monica, the realtor, and Augie Duke who plays Karen, the goth sister. I wish their parts were larger, but maybe it is better to leave us wanting more. Henstridge, who is no stranger to sexploitation, is stiffer than I would like in this film, but she also has the most difficult character to play since being a straight man can be a thankless job. Also how big is that bookstore? Did she use the supernatural to survive Amazon?
While The Black Room happily embraces its B-movie roots and budget, it never has that body horror David Cronenberg flash of genius that makes it rise above its soft core ambitions. The film is smart enough to know what it is and poke fun at itself, but I did kind of hope that it would show a sliver of Panos Cosmatos or Richard Stanley’s distinctive visual style, which would have elevated the content slightly, but instead it stays firmly rooted in the straight to home visual content. It suggests that the commentary on the divisive effect of domestication on happy couples is more of an accident than insightfulness.
The Black Room also provides valuable lessons to viewers. If you live in an evil house, don’t invite people over. Don’t stand in the middle of a ritual that you are trying to stop—just get a hose and spray them with it, which will probably ruin the rushed paint job of occult symbols. If a door is always shut and seems locked, do not go inside that room without always having someone outside the room and the house informed and ready to rescue you if possible. If your significant other won’t let you have cheese, divorce them immediately because the relationship will not get better, and you deserve cheese. If someone is rude to restaurant employees, stop them immediately and check to see if possessed. Oh and try not to buy a house with a scary history.
The Black Room is not a good movie, is low brow entertainment and shows us how much more sophisticated horror film has come in a few decades. Still I would be lying if I said that I did not get a nostalgic kick out of the film. I love a bad movie with a sense of humor though I think that it could have been a skosh better.
