Room 9

ROOM 9 comes from writer/director Thomas Walton, and the premise mostly centers on a revenge plot 40 years in the making. Some big names in the horror world appear in the film, such as Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th, Hatchet), Michael Berryman (The Hills have Eyes), and Scout Taylor-Compton (Halloween). However, even with this powerhouse of a cast, the film offers very little in the way of horror or even plot.Room 9 2021

Describing the story of this film proves difficult, so let’s start with the opening scene. A newly married couple rents a hotel room (room number 9 to be exact) and while thoroughly enjoying each other, a group of men break in and murder them. The reason for this unexpected crime? The men were supposedly commanded to wash away the sins of the married pair. Just in the first few minutes, we get treated to an absolutely painful soundscape as we watch Michael Berryman’s character sharpen a hatchet. Paired with the cringy noises, the film also attempts to look like old grainy footage or a VHS with tracking issues. It seems the director intended the effect to represent a flashback, but the result just creates the appearance of a bad selfie filter.

After the cold opening, the sequence during the title credits plays out like an early 90s metal music video. Just a really random assortment of visuals with a garage band kind of sound playing in between clips of Jed Bedford (Berryman) praying. In fact, the whole movie plays out like a long self-produced music video, with the songs often taking precedence over the dialogue. Throughout the film, you will keep expecting the movie to finally get serious and take a break from the overbearing sound design and weird assortment of angles and visuals, but ROOM 9 does not let up with its wanna-be music video stance.