Room 205

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Horrorphile - March 2009

Kollegiet (Room 205)

March 11th 2009 23:52

Kollegiet (2007, which translates as The College), a Danish tale of supernatural vengeance, is excellent; I don’t care what anyone says. The Australian reviewer for Empire magazine gave it one star and said it had no story, while a Danish member of imdb.com commented that he’d been to KUW (the same college where the movie is set) and that it was nothing like it is in the movie, that the acting was inept, and the movie was plot-less - just some random scenes strung together in order to scare an audience. Hmmm, it’s curious the way people’s opinions can differ so greatly.

I’ll agree there are similarities to those two famous J-Horror flicks: Ringu (1998) and Ju-on: The Grudge (2003), but Room 205 (as its known internationally) commands its own atmosphere and despite its creepy malevolent ghost appearing out of the corners of the screen it’s not derivative enough to warrant criticism. The movie possesses some genuinely frightening scenes, and although its low-budget is apparent (shot on DV with minimal exteriors), director Martin Barnewitz knows how to create a palpable sense of fear through the use of lighting, editing, sound effects, and some pretty decent special effects.

Neel Ronholt as Katrine

Mira Wanting as Lena and Julie Olgaard as Sanne

The story is very simple, and my wife and I found the tale compelling from the start; I don’t understand the harsh criticism over the screenplay this movie has been getting. Of course, any movie that deals with the supernatural has to be taken lightly, and yet compared to the glossy “reality” of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), Room 205 eats that crappy excuse for a movie for breakfast. It may be a little under-cooked, but its style and atmosphere burn deep and long (Dario Argento managed a whole career with medium-rare screenplays!), even if the ghost of Stanley Kubrick - The Shining (1980) - lingers.

Lena has a disturbing vision via a broken piece of mirror

Katrine moves into a Copenhagen university dorm, but quickly finds that her fellow residents aren’t that genuine. Resident bitch, Sanne (Julie Ølgaard) takes and immediate dislike and decides to make Katrine’s life unpleasant; however Sanne’s girlfriend Lena (Mira Wanting) tries not to get too involved.

Lukas (Jon Lange) also experiences the same kind of reflection

Katrine starts to experience weird, unsettling visions, which culminate when Sanne and the others play a terrible practical joke on her, but not before Katrine is seduced by Sanne’s ex, Lukas (Jon Lange) during a dormitory party. Katrine is later rejected by Lukas, so she reluctantly befriends ex-dorm resident Rolf (Mikkel Arendt), who was bullied by Sanne, in order to find out about the so-called myth surrounding the ghost of a former dorm resident (the basis of Sanne’s practical joke).

Katrine has a nightmare vision of the rape-murder of the ghost (Rikke Lylloff)

By accident Katrine sets the ghost free which has been trapped and dormant inside the mirror in room 205 (Sanne’s room). The ghost, Genfærdet (Rikke Lylloff), has some bones to pick, and she doesn’t care if they weren’t the people responsible for her horrific ordeal and subsequent death. She can move from mirror to mirror and then at will materialise long enough in the real world in order to kill or at the very least, scare the bejesus out of her intended victim. It’s up to Katrine and Rolf to halt the ragin’ ghost by trapping her back in the original shattered mirror.

Beware, ghost on the loose!

The acting is fine; Neel Rønholt (who looks like soft-porn horror starlet Misty Mundae) and her nemesis Julie Ølgaard, all Euro-frizzed hair, are the movie’s stand-out performances, but credit must be given to Rikke Lylloff too for her damn scary portrayal of the young woman done oh so wrong. Her rape-death scene is nasty stuff, but it gives the movie an edge, and certainly possesses the ghost character with more than enough wrath. I wonder how extreme and/or stylish the remake will be? Certainly it will cost a lot more, but that doesn’t translate to being more effective.

Sanne brandishes the piece of mirror needed to trap the ghost who's creeping up behind her

Room 205 has many terrific jump-scares, albeit one too many (director Barnewitz goes one too far with his Hollywood ending, and of course, Hollywood bought it hook, line and sinker, so Sam Raimi is producing a remake with Barnewitz back at the helm). So, you see, the story must have been considered good enough to re-tell.

Rolf (Mikkel Arendt) and Katrine at the end of their tether

Room 205 is easily the best straight-to-DVD flick I’ve seen in ages. The title and cover art will not grab your attention, but check it out, and it’s best watched alone at night with the lights down low. Make sure you get the Danish-language version though!

Here's the excellent Danish trailer, with English subs:

And here's the U.S. trailer to the English-dubbed version (no doubt dreadful) put out by Sam Raimi's Ghost House company, who just happen to be funding the remake as well.

Vote

Subscribe to this blog

Email this post to a friend

Go to the Orble Film Channel

Start your own blog

[ Link ]

Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

Related Posts:

Relate This Post

[ Previous - Friday the 13th (2009) ]

[ Next - All the Boys Love Mandy Lane ]

Comments

2 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

March 13th 2009 01:29

That looks like fun.

I like my movies jumpy.
Boo and spill your popcorn.

Comment by Bryn

March 13th 2009 03:16

Horrorphile

Damo, you be spilling with this one boy!

[ Previous - Friday the 13th (2009) ]

[ Next - All the Boys Love Mandy Lane ]

Add A Comment

To create a fully formatted comment please click here.

CLICK HERE TO LOGIN | CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Name or Orble Tag

Home Page (optional)

Comments

Notify me of replies

Notify extra people about this comment

Is this a private comment?

List the Email Addresses or Orble Tags of the people you would like to be notified about this comment

One per line max of 30

List the Email Addresses or Orble Tags of the people you would like to be notified about this private comment thread. Only the people in this list will be able to see or reply to your comment.

One per line max of 30

Your Name
(for the email going out to the above list, it can be different to your Orble Tag)

Your Email Address

(optional)

(required for reply notification)

Submit

February 2010

4 Posts

January 2010

12 Posts

December 2009

13 Posts