Because my random pick, Time Crimes, last year in the Park City at Midnight program worked out so well, I decided to do the same in picking another movie specifically from that program. I wasn't so lucky this time. Oh there were plenty of good movies in this program -- Mystery Team, Grace, to name two -- but just not The Killing Room. Ah, well, I also place the blame on the truly painful ticket selection process.
The movie has a great premise, an unknown, likely evil government experiment performed on arbitrary citizens. A specialized psychologist, as part of her hiring interview, is asked to explain the purpose of this experiment from earlier video footage and computer data. Early scenes, creepily but cleanly constructed with the help of a mind dueling between Peter Stormare and Chloë Sevigny, carries this premise to a tantalizing bait. Then things get ugly, violent, and no longer psychological. It deteriorates into just another slasher movie. By the time the ending comes and the secret is revealed, I no longer cared. Well, ok, I have to admit that the ending was quite clever, but I really resented the middle hour or so. The bottom line is that there just wasn't enough script to make this an 100-min movie. I told my friends, who also attended the screening, that this could have been a truly awesome short. Sadly, you can't really market a short, in which case they really should have worked more on the script.
The movie is also extremely loud, so be forewarned.
