The Black Room (1983)

To me, this movie is perfection.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The titular Black Room is the room where some of the darkest sexual fantasies are brought to life.It's candle-lit and secretly hidden in the mansion of doom.Brother and sister Jason and Brigette rent it for sexually adventurous people.Unfortunately Jason has a rare blood disease and he needs fresh blood transfusions in order to stay alive.The murderous duo kills most of the people who rent the Black Room and drain them of their blood.Their next victims are going to be Larry and Robin-a married couple with two kids."The Black Room" is an erotic and suitably dark horror film with some nudity and graphic gore including Bridgette's neck stabbing by Robin in the finale.Linnea Quigley has a small cameo as a babysitter.8 blood transfusions out of 10.

"The Black Room" is an incredibly bad and dull film without much going for it.**SPOILERS**Finding a new apartment, Larry, (Jimmy Stathis) decides to buy it and turn it into a bachelor pad, hiding it from Robin, (Clara Perryman) his wife. When landlords Jason, (Stephen Knight) and Bridget, (Cassandra Gava) question him on the purchase, he uses it as a place to sleep with a multitude of women hitchhikers he picks up. When she hears about the place, she doesn't think much of the stories and think it's just a bunch of stories. Soon afterward, a series of strange disappearances plague the women who have visited the place, but they ignore it and decide to focus on their marriage and continue on with bringing people over to visit. Finally realizing that the landlords are murdering the women who visit as a means to acquire blood for transfusions to fix his blood-disease, they try to stop them before it's too late.The Good News: There's hardly anything worthwhile about this one. The fact that the film's lone action scene in the middle of the film comes from a rather nice chase scene is to be commended, as there's a couple good things about it. The fact that it's a rather energetic scene with the different characters going out after it through the woods, and it makes for an effective atmosphere. The sleaze factor here is also rather nice, with the way it manages to create an icky feeling with the relationship it creates with them, as well as the general fact of what they're doing offering up some rather nice sleaze. The last bit in here that works is the film's nicely done climax, which is where the main action occurs. From the chase through the house to the different stalk-and-slash tactics used, it offers up some interest. Further helping it is the film's only real gore scenes, which aren't much to talk about but at least it offers up something. These here are all that work for the film.The Bad News: This is a terribly dull and completely worthless horror entry. The fact that there's hardly any horror at all in the film is the biggest and most damaging prospect, effectively making it so dull and lifeless that the film does almost nothing at all during it's running time. The fact that it rests so much on it's relationships rather than it's horror is where it falls foul, making them the central point when they aren't that good or exciting to begin with. The sibling angle is so lamely done it's still up in the air at the end of the film, as it seems to incorporate aspects of both a brother-sister bond as well as an incestuous air between them in certain scenes. The other angle with the marriage-on-the-rocks story is not that much better, full of never-ending scenes that are purely not that scary at all. That's the film's biggest problem, nothing in here is considered scary, and here, what happens between them is exactly that, not that great at providing anything to counter the boredom these non-horror sequences create. None of them are there for the best of what makes the film entertaining or interesting, and just make the film incredibly dull to sit through. The amount of time spent on those angles are nothing worthwhile at all, providing no scenes of value and just continuing a storyline that isn't all to concerned with horror aspects at all. That also means that we don't get anything remotely close to the horror genre until the end, with only a mildly interesting chase scene to provide the goods until then. The scares are missing, the gore is non-existent until the end, and the kills are relegated to simply being just the scenes of the victim being drained of blood. It leaves such a bad aftertaste that there's almost no need for it. Even the fact that it's a sleazy-feeling film is neutered by the fact that it's only in one scene, and despite all the different scenes in here that provided opportunity to do so, it doesn't offer anything up, making the film even more of a cheat and providing even more flaws to hate against it.The Final Verdict: An unbearably slow and dull film that barely has anything worthwhile, or even remotely horror-based about it. It should really be avoided at all costs unless this sort of sleazy thriller is appealing, but for any other sort of style this one should be ignored and forgotten.Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence, Nudity, several sex scenes and drug use

Sleazy and bored hubby Larry (well played by Jimmy Stathis) ain't too happy with his marriage to his neglected wife Robin (a fine and touching performance by Clara Perryman). Larry decides to rent a creepy black room in a swanky Hollywood Hills mansion from the strange Jason (muscular Stephen Knight) and his equally odd, but alluring sister Bridget (the strikingly lovely and exotic Cassandra Gaviola) in order to put some much-needed pizazz back into his dreary love life. Larry uses the room to have sex with young ladies. Unbeknownst to Larry, Jason in turn drains the young women of their blood and shoots up their precious life fluid with a needle. Ably directed by Elly Kenner and Norman Thaddeus Vane (the latter also wrote and directed the strictly so-so "Frightmare"), with solid acting from the entire cast (Linnea Quigley has a nifty small role as a near victim babysitter towards the end of the movie), a compellingly bizarre and twisted story, a genuinely spooky atmosphere, several aberrant touches (Jason and Bridget like to spy on Larry as he's doing just what you think with the girls he picks up), and a harrowing conclusion, this pleasingly offbeat, inspired and unjustly overlooked low-budget horror sleeper deserves to be both better known and more widely seen by fans of enjoyably deviant outré cinema.

Pretty twisted Horror film, that has a few good moments here and there, with some creepy Blood transfusion scenes, however it's just too dull for it's own good. All the characters are OK, and the story while had a lot of potential is rather dull, however the blood transfusion scenes looked frighteningly real, and as a result they were extremely disturbing. It's well made and decently written, and it started out really interesting, but it just couldn't keep up the pace, plus I found the ending to be disappointing. Linnea Quigley has no more then a very small role in this so, I was also disappointed about that, and Stephen Knight does a good job as the lead, as he was pretty twisted, plus I got this in a DVD Horror set called A Taste Of Evil, along with a bunch of other Horror films. There is lots of blood,however it's not all that gory, and for it's low budget it was pretty well done, however as I said it just couldn't sustain it's interest. This is a pretty twisted Horror film, that has a few good moments here and there, with some creepy blood transfusion scenes, however it's just too dull for it's own good, I would pass,but I guess it's worth a watch if you have nothing better to do. The Direction is OK. Elly Kenner&Norman Thaddeus Vane do an OK job here with decent camera work, and doing a good job on it's low budget, however the pace is too inconsistent for my liking. The Acting is actually alright. Stephen Knight is great as the lead, he was creepy, twisted, sick, and gave a very creepy performance, the most creepy thing about it though was he seemed like a normal person. Linnea Quigley did well in her small role. Christopher McDonald is OK I guess sin his short time. Rest of the cast are OK as well. Overall I would pass, but I guess it's worth a watch if you have nothing absolutely better to do. *1/2 out of 5