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13. Green Room (202 points)

Why I Chose It: Jeremy Saulnier is perhaps one of the most underrated talents working in horror & thrillers right now. Though Green Room wasn't necessarily the biggest box office success (it didn't even make back its budget), I still wanted to highlight it for its huge critical success as one of the best films of 2016, its gritty approach to violence and gore, for being one of the last films Anton Yelchin starred in before his tragic, untimely passing, and for its hardcore punk vs. Neo-Nazi skinhead politics that still feel frightfully relevant at the time of the film's release through this day.

Tom Nook: 1
BetrayedTangy: 2
Snake: 4
rockus: 6
thesmark: 6
jcgamer107: 10
red13n: 11
Johnbobb: 16
Plasmabeam: 16
FFDragon: 18
Lightning Strikes: 18
Suprak: 18
Inviso: 23
fortybelowsummer: 25
PrinceKaro: 28

Tom Nook - The gap between my #1 and #2 is huge, and that's no knock at my #2. This movie is just far above anything else. Jeremy Saulnier is one of the most underrated directors today. One of the things he does best is a sense of realism and consequence. Characters actually act cautious and think about what their actions lead to, instead of just "hey, it's a movie, I'll kill people as my first option". So when bursts of violence actually occur, it means something, instead of "just more movie violence". In Green Room, we see characters who feel real, as they analyze the unfortunate situations they find themselves in. We see this from both perspectives of the victims and the villains. It makes the villains feel human as they do these monstrous acts. Darcy is easily one of my all time favorite film villains, in part because of Patrick Stewart, but largely because you get to see how he comes to make these decisions. Gabe is the most fascinating character of the film, as he is not a good person, but tries to diffuse things, yet was largely responsible for the clusterfuck that took place. Among the band members, it's never that obvious who is "the main character", so we just get to see who survives. Amber is another fascinating character, as her life has been a series of poor choices, but she knows the villains well enough and is able to use a lot of that against them. It's a very claustrophobic film, as violence continues to amplify and people scramble to survive. My favorite scene of any film on this list, is the final confrontation here. Pat and Amber show up at Darcy's house, and we as the audience can relate to Pat more than anyone at this point, and when he says the line "This...is a nightmare", it really hits home at how everything has just gone completely out of control, and there is no way for him to ever snap out of it. It happened.

BetrayedTangy - This is probably the most controversial movie in my Top 5, but goddamn is it a great thriller. First off, I love the red herring that is the concert. Having the Aint Rights tell the Neo Nazis to fuck off in song form is absolutely legendary and tricks you into thinking you know the plot, but then the twist happens and instead we get hit with a feeling worse than fear; uncertainty. Were put into the shoes of the band members themselves and start thinking about how theyll get out of this situation. Then Darcy comes in and holy shit I cannot picture this guy being played by anyone else. I never thought Id be intimidated by Patrick Stewart and yet here we are. Anyway, Darcys here now and it becomes readily apparent that our heroes arent going to be alive anymore. This is when the movie shook me to my core. Up to this point I feel like Green Room did a great job of establishing the band and who they are. Little details like Reeces history with jiu-jitsu or their desert island bands go a long way in making the characters more realistic and so it hurts that much more once they start dying off. This was the point in the film where the type of tension changes. Pat lost all of his friends and his arm, but he also knows what hes up against now and hes not going to just lie down and die. The final push to safety is so rewarding, because we actually get to see them slowly rise up against the odds before finally coming out on top showing that you should never just give up. Easily one of my new favorite movies.

Snake - I was first interested in this film before I knew any of Jeremy Saulniers works as a hardcore fan of punk rock music. Off the bat, one of my favorite aspects here is how many aspects of hardcore life are portrayed - cancelled gigs, having to play at shady or downright empty venues, having no money and crashing at peoples places and siphoning gas for your van. It gets you right into the nitty-gritty of the characters lives and headspace without much more set-up beyond that, which keeps the pacing tight and always propulsing forward - much like the speed of a punk song. The Aint Rights play the Dead Kennedys classic Nazi Punks Fuck Off, and the tension never lets up from there. I like how you think this is going to be the cause of them getting trapped, but its actually because they witness a murder, which is much darker and makes for much better stakes. Enter Patrick Stewarts Darcy, one of the most intimidating villains on the whole list here. His soft-spoken, almost fatherly-attitude disarms his true nature as manipulative, racist, and ruthlessly violent and efficient. The film plays with thriller tropes, and constantly shifts who has the upper hand, as both sides fall prey to some up-close and disgustingly realistic bodily harm, like Big Justin getting his gut cut open or Pat having his arm slashed up beyond recognition. Green Room does not hold back in sparing any characters or sugar-coating the dire depths both the punks and skinheads increasingly get themselves unwittingly involved in. Its a film that always gets my blood pumping, and ultimately, the films Pyrrhic sense of chaos and death shows the nihilism and futility of senseless loss of life and needless jealousy and hatred.

Rockus - Green Room is another film on this list that I dont quite think of as a horror movie but I cant hold that against it because it rules. A nasty, grimy, violent bottled thriller that made me cringe and wince at all the right moments. This thing is cast perfectly (and still a terrible shame about Yelchin) and what a break out from Imogen Poots. When I first saw this I had just previously seen that Need for Speed dud with Aaron Paul and this just gives her so much more to do. Hope Saulnier comes back with another killer film sometime soon because this and Blue Ruin both rock and he could show a lot of filmmakers, a few on this list in fact, what someone can still pull off with little or no money.

Jcgamer107 - Somewhat borderline whether its a horror film or just a pure thriller but theres more than enough brutal, gruesome violence that Ill buy it. Just a really effective execution of an extremely simple premise with a good cast, reminds me of John Carpenters Assault on Precinct 13. It does a nice job of character building as we go on even though the movie is mostly about pure premise and propulsion. You've got these stage punks who are totally unprepared for actual violence going up against people who are very experienced when it comes to real violence and having to adjust to fighting on their level in order to survive. It does fully grapple with the gravity of its violence though, how gruesome it actually is to take somebodys life and the weight it would put on any halfway decent person. Patrick Stewart does some of the best work of his career, Imogen Poots is fun as such a steely character and even if hes done better, man I miss Anton Yelchin.