Room 205 (2008)

(aka Kolelgiet)
Release Date: On DVD now
Directed by: Martin Barnewitz
Written by: Jannik Tai Mosholt
Starring: Neel Ronholt, Mikkel Arendt and Julie R. Olgaard
 
Denmark has given us a girl with a dragon tattoo, the perverse styling of Lars Von Trier, the amazing styling of Nicolas Winding Refn, and the lead singer of 80's super group White Lion. As far as horror flicks go, well, Denmark isn't very famous for those.

That's why we approached Room 205 with such interest; We've seen Vikaren and Antichrist, and we wanted to see if they had it in them to pull it off again.

Denmark has also given us King Diamond, and if he isn't terrifying, I don't know what is.

Hot, innocent little Katrine moves to the big city to go to University. She meets a group of fellow students who are essentially the snotty cool kids, lead by the snootiest, snottiest, snittiest of them all, Sanne. When Katrine lets her slutty side come out and bangs Sanne's ex-boyfriend, she becomes an outcast!

"You dont bang my ex's, you dumb bitch!"

The cool kids try to bully Katrine; being mean and snarky, smacking her in the mouth and calling her Flugelhoffenbrackensnus (we have no idea what that even means.) They also try to scare her with the local legend of the ghost of a dead girl who haunts the hallways of their dormitory. That must have been tempting fate, because soon enough that very same ghost begins to haunt people! Also, it's Katrine's fault, because she sets the ghost girl free of her ghost prison...

"Thanks for freeing me, you dumb bitch!"

People in the dorm start dying left and right, and no one believes Katrine when she says it's the ghost that's killing everyone. Of course, she sets out to find a way to stop the ghost girl, and end her campaign of revenge!

Room 205 is mostly  knock off of  J-Horror films that involve a vengeful ghost who has been wronged in some way or another. In fact, if you had just replaced the cast of the movie with Japanese actors, it would have been a J-Horror movie to the core. Is that a bad thing? I don't know. It's well made, the girls are nice to look at, and it has its creepy moments. There's blood too, which is always a good thing.

...and some gang rape.

Standing on its own, as a horror flick from a Country not used to making horror flicks, its pretty damned good. If you look at it as a horror flick in general though, it doesn't really stand out from the crowd. Then again movies don't always have to be very different to be good. Being effective while being the same as so many others is alright too.

Who am I to be so harsh on this movie anyhow; America can't make a movie like this on its best horror day anymore. Here in the U.S. of A., the only horror movies that come out of Hollywood and scare people these days are POV flicks like Paranormal Activity. I'm truly starting to believe that atmosphere is now a thing of Indie Cinema and Foreign Film;  Indie Cinema because it tends to be more raw, and Foreign Films because they tend to be so nuanced and story driven. I know, that point could easily be debated, but for the most part, it's a true statement. What used to be the rule in Hollywood is now the exception in most cases.

Now that's how it's done.

Anywho, this was a good Danish flick full of atmosphere and tension, even if it felt more than familiar.

C+ Room 205 is a decent movie that looks good, is filled with good looking people, and does the supernatural revenge thing well enough. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but keep in mind that the movie is Danish, and for them this is relatively unexplored territory. If you're a fan of Grudge-like movies, you should enjoy this one. If you're tired of too many movies biting off of the J and K-Horror style, then you will most likely just roll your eyes at this one.

Why do the Scandinavian countries have so many hot chicks? They need to start exporting them here... in a non human trafficking sort of way.Or traffick them if you want, just get them here please! *THC in no way supports human trafficking, even when it involves really hot chicks who we feel should be sex slaves to some deviant pervert somewhere.