Green Room
A24 | Release Date: April 15, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 28, 2016
It’s a delightfully cruel work of high tension, perfect in just how quickly and easily it gets under your skin. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 28, 2016
Green Room is just as accomplished a film, with the writer/director doing everything right: the cast, the music, the editing, the way he leads you one way and then clobbers you (and some of his ill-fated characters) when you (and they) are least expecting it. Read full review
100
HitfixDrew McWeenySep 11, 2015
Just on a technical level, the film represents such a big jump forward for Saulnier that you should expect the studios to immediately start arguing over which giant soulless franchise should occupy his time in the near-future. Read full review
100
IndieWireJason GorberMay 20, 2015
Littered with clever dialogue, a beautifully constructed narrative, as well as moments that shift between the energizing and sheer terror, there are a slew of endearing qualities worth sifting through. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 13, 2016
Green Room is a rare gift from the genre gods: a nasty, punk-as-f..k midnight movie made by a genuine artist, a filmmaker with a great eye and a true understanding of the people and places he’s splattering in viscera. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 13, 2016
Part of being in a punk band involves having to play some pretty hostile venues. But the one in writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s new white-knuckle thriller, Green Room, makes the typical mosh-pit dive look like a kindergarten run by nuns. Read full review
91
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMay 20, 2015
An exciting, splattery, funny genre movie that somehow never once feels disposable. Read full review
90
The VergeEmily YoshidaApr 26, 2016
While Green Room shares an aesthetic sensibility with his last film (he shot and directed all his features), Saulnier is up to something very different this time around — something simpler, perhaps, but more immediately satisfying. Read full review
90
SlateJeffrey BloomerApr 16, 2016
Green Room proves to be an exquisitely crafted love letter to John Carpenter, and the rare horror ensemble that gives as much care to the villains as to the victims. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 14, 2016
While thrashing chords score this gutbucket nightmare, Saulnier's way with overwhelmed characters, pressing evil and dangerous escape mechanics is practically symphonic. Read full review
90
Village VoiceBilge EbiriApr 14, 2016
Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room is an impeccably crafted cinematic torture machine — in the best possible way. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 13, 2016
It’s gruesome and funny and dark and incredibly tense. Read full review
90
ScreenCrushMatt SingerApr 13, 2016
The brilliance is all in the execution, which is just about perfect, from the score of hard-rocking music (and ear-piercing feedback) to the gritty cinematography by Sean Porter. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiApr 20, 2016
Saulnier and co. have crafted a gleefully merciless update on Deliverance, except instead of city folk vs. hillbillies, it’s punk rockers vs. neo-Nazis, and it is one of the most brutal, visceral films to come along in quite some time. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 21, 2016
The cinematography, the set design, the all-important soundtrack, the editing: all first-rate. This is one smart chiller. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 21, 2016
Violence in Green Room is just bad. Unfortunately for its heroes and for us all, it’s also sometimes inevitable. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 28, 2016
Green Room is a blunt instrument of terror announcing Saulnier as a filmmaker to watch, just as soon as you pry those fingers off your eyes. Read full review
83
ConsequenceSarah KurchakApr 13, 2016
The plot unravels beautifully, at a pace that’s methodical but still anxiety-inducing, building up an air of psychological fear so impenetrable that the only relief from it is an occasional splattering of visceral horror or an even more rare quip along the way. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 28, 2016
Yelchin and Poots are especially good. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanApr 18, 2016
A riotous, rough-hewn and rousing punk reinvention of ’70s-style grindhouse exploitation-with-a-brain-cinema. Read full review
80
TheWrapSam FragosoApr 16, 2016
Despite the descent into madness that appears on screen, the movie is controlled and measured. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsEdward DouglasApr 13, 2016
For those who enjoy the goriest of thrillers, there is plenty of red running through Green Room. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 18, 2015
This is a brutal movie that finds unusual freedom in limitations, as do wiry bassist Pat (Anton Yelchin) and bleach-blond concert attendee Amber (Imogen Poots), who both turn out to be pretty handy with weapons. Chalk it up to their killer instincts. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 20, 2015
Scary and funny by turns, Green Room has the potential to become a cult hit, with a genuine midnight movie appeal, and furthers the growing reputation of this young director. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMay 20, 2015
Saulnier’s ability to take a well-trodden road and fill it with grisly surprises is quite something. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 28, 2016
Green Room is a simple movie with a straightforward premise. The film works for two reasons: Stewart’s presence and Saulnier’s execution. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanApr 28, 2016
The whole movie has a matter-of-factness that extends not just to the final photographic montage but the last line of dialogue. We can’t ask for more from this genre, and we often get much less. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 22, 2016
A ferocious, bloody, primal and pitiless gut-punch of a movie. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenApr 21, 2016
Green Room is one nasty piece of work. And I mean that in a good way. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubApr 21, 2016
The cinematography and direction are particularly compelling; the complicated sequences on the tight sets must have forced camera operators to play cinematic Twister in impossibly small corners. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 14, 2016
Green Room is way more than crass exploitation. It's a B movie with an art-house core. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickApr 14, 2016
Patrick Stewart has a blast playing against type as a soft-spoken white supremacist holding a punk rock band as his temporary prisoners in Jeremy Saulnier’s nicely crafted, low-budget comedy-thriller. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineCarson LundApr 11, 2016
The film is an unambiguous endorsement of violent revolt as the only effective response to such inhuman savagery. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 20, 2015
There may not be a lot of depth to Green Room, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t sufficient thought and care. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinMay 20, 2015
As action, it's niftily executed, the suspense neatly built, and the shocks expectedly surprising. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsApr 15, 2016
You have to take the bad with the good here: Green Room may be too schematic to fully capture the essence of its characters' groddy milieu, but it's also economically paced, and gorgeous. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 28, 2016
Another feather in the cap of Saulnier, who -- now with two impressive features under his belt as director -- is emerging to become one of the more intriguing new voices in Hollywood. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 14, 2016
Once the violence starts, Green Room settles into horror movie logic, becoming steadily more gruesome and less terrifying as the body count grows. You know some people are going to die, and figuring out who and in what order feels more like a brainteaser than like a matter of deep moral or emotional concern. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 20, 2015
Characterization and emotional investment, however, are in disappointingly short supply, while crucial tension is permitted to dissipate in an anti-climactic final third. Read full review
58
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaApr 13, 2016
While Green Room features a number of ingeniously crafted set pieces, it quickly winds up as an excessive, borderline pornographic revelry in extreme violence. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 21, 2016
Aficionados of gore and guts may not mind the comfortably lived-in feel of this blood-spattered Green Room. But anyone looking for the ferocious originality, and unexpected humanity, of “Blue Ruin” will be disappointed by Saulnier’s uninspired cover version of a song we all know. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedApr 14, 2016
Before the carnage ends, the entire cast has been tortured, mutilated and murdered by so many weapons it’s hard to keep them straight. When the shotguns, box cutters and machetes run out, it’s time to cue the flesh-eating attack dogs. Read full review
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