Larry (Jimmy Stathis) is a family man who is perpetually getting cockblocked by his bratty kids every time he tries to make love to his hot wife Robin (Clara Perryman). His solution: Rent a guest room in the Hollywood Hills so he can bang hitchhikers and hookers on the down low. Little does Larry know his kooky landlords, a creepy brother-sister duo named Jason (Stephen Knight) and Bridget (Cassandra Gava), are photographing all his sordid trysts. Even worse, they’re using his conquests for their bizarre blood transfusions to keep Jason alive. Things become even more complicated when Robin discovers his secret and begins making her own secret rendezvous with Jason.
The Black Room is an interesting near-miss as it’s more arty than exploitative. It’s also more concerned with the characters and what makes them tick than it is with putting the screws to the audience. That would be okay if it actually stuck the landing. (The open-ended finale is kind of drawn out and a bit of a letdown.) The scenes of the brother and sister’s photography sessions feel inspired by Blow-Up and the scenes inside the titular abode look like something out of a Jose Ramon Larraz movie.
Stathis makes for a boring lead, but Perryman is much more well-rounded and personable than most of the wives you find in an ‘80s horror-thriller. The same goes for Gava (who you will probably recognize as the witch from Conan the Barbarian), who far outshines the unmemorable Knight. I also enjoyed seeing Linnea Quigley popping up late in the game in a small role, and a young Christopher McDonald also appears.
The black room itself is really the star though. Draped in black velvet, surrounded by candles, and sporting a sweet glowing coffee table, it has a lot of personality. Robert Harmon, the future director of the classic The Hitcher, was the director of photography, and he did a fine job of giving the room a sinister vibe. Too bad many of the goings on that occur there are brief and not very steamy.
Co-director Norman Thaddeus Vane also helmed Frightmare, which was released the same year.
No comments:
Post a Comment