THE BLACK ROOM (2017)
Label: Cleopatra Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 94 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 (No subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen
Director: Rolfe Kanefsky
Cast: Natasha Henstridge, Lin Shaye,Dominique Swain, Tiffany Shepis, James Duvall, Lukas Hassel
All aboard for campy erotic demon-sex weirdness with a movie from Rolfe Kanefsky, the director of the pre-Scream ironic-horror film There's Nothing Out There (1991), who has since gone on to direct softcore stuff like The Erotic Misadventures of the Invisible Man (2003) and Emmanuelle 2000: Emmanuelle Pie (2003), the latter stuff I haven't seen but his softcore leanings are quite evident here. Paul (Lukas Hassel) and his wife Jennifer Hemdale (Natasha Henstridge, Species) movie into a new house, they got it for a steal since the former occupants have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.. you know, that old nugget.
Turns out that the house is home to a sex-demon, an incubus, that begins to meddle in the lives of the newlyweds. The entity lives in a secret room down in the basement of the home, manifesting itself as steam at first, making its way through the house via the furnace duct work, introducing itself to the coupe by giving them both ghost-gasms, but soon enough the demon takes on a physical form by possessing Paul. Not long after the guy begins to molest, fuck, rape and kill every woman in sight, including his wife's goth sister Karen (Augie Duke, The Badger Game) and their sexy neighbor (Dominique Swain, Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre),
The movie is fun in a campy sort of way but the mix of goofy possession eroticism is awkwardly married with the rape-y weirdness, I imagine the prospect of directing a demon-rape comedy is fraught with challenges, like the fact that the tone changes from low-budget horror to demon-rape comedy every few minutes. The tonal shift make for an uneven viewing, not helping is the over-the-top scene chewing from co-star Lukas Hassel, playing a sexually frustrated, arrogant dimwit, the character is sinisterly dumb and he seems to be in a completely different movie than everyone else, he really amps up the camp to the nth degree, spouting off one-liners and groan inducing puns at an alarming rate, which is fun but weird. The rest of the cast is not too shabby, some familiar faces here, we have Natasha Henstridge from the Species movies as the wife, she seems pretty game for the camp-drenched horror movie, while she never drops her clothes completely she does lean into a washing machine for some masturbatory fun and makes an o-face in the bathtub when the sex-demon gives her some otherworldly pleasure.
There are also appearances from Al Jourgensen of the industrial-metal band Ministry, Michael Reed (Disco Exorcist), Tiffany Shepis (Tromeo and Juliet) as a realtor, James Duval (Donnie Darko) as a horny Maytag repairman, and Victoria De Mare, who plays Batty Boop in the Killjoy movies. However, the biggest shock for me was the appearance of Lin Shaye (Insidious) as the former owner of the house, in a pre-credit sequence we see her freak out when the demon escapes from its basement prison to seduce and rape her sexy granddaughter, which features some strange nipple manipulation, which pretty much sums up what you can expect for the next ninety-minutes, fun but goofy stuff.
The special effects of the movie are actually pretty decent, enjoyed the horned-demonic makeup effects and some of the gore was quite good. The latex wall with the groping red demon hands was not one of the better effects but overall I was pleasantly surprised how good the special effects were for otherwise fairly awful movie.
Special Features:
- Commentary with Director Rolfe Kanefsky and star Natasha Henstridge
- Deleted and Extended Scenes (31 min) HD
- Behind the Scenes(1 min) HD
- Bloopers and Outtakes (1 min) HD
- Storyboards (44 images) HD
- Slideshow (73 images) HD
The Black Room (2016) is a bad movie; a campy, sex-drizzled slice of lust-horror loaded with bad dialogue and softcore silliness, every once in awhile we get a decent special effect, a decent song, and plenty of naked ladies, but this is not anything I would willingly watch again. It's trashy, but not a trashy good time, I have to say avoid this one unless you catch it for free on some streaming service or pick it up cheap for just a few bucks.
