Entertainment
The Scariest Film On Netflix Is Carried By Two Star Trek Greats
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For actors, performing in Star Trek is often a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they quickly gain a legion of new fans, and they can spend a lifetime appearing at nerd conventions filled with hungry autograph seekers. On the other hand, they might need those convention appearances when they inevitably get typecast as their famous sci-fi character.
Every now and then, though, Star Trek actors break free of their famous franchise and show us what they can do in entirely different genres. A great example of this is Green Room (2015), a viscerally disturbing horror film featuring veteran spacers Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin. If you want to see what happens when these two set their acting phasers to “stunning,” all you have to do is stream its macabre madness for yourself on Netflix.
When Horror Goes Punk
The premise of Green Room is that after a punk band’s gig gets canceled, a radio host finds them an alternate venue with one big catch: it’s a neo-Nazi bar. After they play, the band discovers a dead body in the titular green room, and that’s when everything goes to hell. Just like that, a band of traveling musicians just trying to make a name for themselves are caught in a fight for their lives against unflinching foes who won’t stop until they are six feet in the ground.
Green Room has a few surprising names in its cast, including Imogen Poots (best known for 28 Weeks Later) and Alia Shawkat (best known for Arrested Development). But in terms of young leads, nobody in this film is killing it quite as much as Anton Yelchin (best known for the 2009 Star Trek), who helps give this punk rock film its beating heart. Meanwhile, Patrick Stewart (best known for Star Trek: The Next Generation) does his best to rip that heart out, giving an absolutely chilling performance as the film’s ultimate Big Bad.
From Box Office Bomb To Critical Darling
Sadly, Green Room was a box office bust when it first came out, earning only $3.8 million against a budget of $5 million. Losing the studio money like this ensured that we would never get a proper sequel, which is a shame because this is one of the most unsettlingly effective horror films of the modern age. Fortunately, the film eventually established itself as a cult hit, and the growing number of fans soon joined the legion of critics who had already dubbed Green Room a modern masterpiece.
When Green Room came out, it quickly won over professional reviewers with its electrical intensity and charismatic performances. On Rotten Tomatoes, it had a rating of 90 percent, with critics praising the film for its intelligent execution of a brilliant genre script. They also spoke highly of Star Trek veterans Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin, whose immense talents help to highlight the generation gap at the heart of this movie’s surprisingly trenchant commentary on the intersection of punk music and Neonazi violence.
This Film Is Nonstop Tension
Part of why this movie works is that it leaves you in a constant state of tension that is punctuated only by horrific acts of brutal violence. This isn’t a horror film where the characters have fun vibing out until they are picked off, one by one, by some faceless killer. Instead, Green Room keeps its protagonist on the edge of their seat, and we are right there along with them; when the hammer finally drops, you’ll let out the breath you didn’t realize you were holding, if only so you can finally scream.
Additionally, the violence of Green Room is that much more impactful because everything is gritty and down to Earth. This isn’t a movie filled with stylized action, quippy one-liners, or lantern-jawed heroes saving the day; rather, it’s a movie in which our flawed heroes constantly make mistakes, which is that much more horrifying because everyone in this film is just one screw-up away from death. When (not if) death comes for your favorite characters, it’s in the form of unpolished violence sure to give you some serious nightmares.
Scream Me Up, Scotty!
At the center of those nightmares will be Sir Patrick Stewart, who is delightfully cast against type as a Neonazi leader who never met a problem he couldn’t solve with murder. His performance is electric, and he commands your attention every moment that he’s in the frame. That’s the genius of his casting, of course: for audiences used to seeing him as the genial Captain Picard, it’s wonderfully perverse to see his commanding presence and hear his confident baritone coming out of a character who is pure evil incarnate.
Will you agree that Green Room is one of the most terrifying tales of the modern age, or would you rather tell this Nazi punk film to f*** off? The only way to find out is to grab the remote (it’s in the green room, next to the snacks) and stream it for yourself on Netflix. Afterwards, you may finally learn a lesson that horror movies have been trying to teach us since The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: there’s nothing scarier in America than the terrors you’ll find in a small town!
