Momentum Pictures
For the four individuals present in this recent thriller, The Killing Room, signing up for a psychological research programme leads to them being subjects of a brutal, modern day version of the Project MKULTRA; a secret mind-control/chemical program that used a variety of methods, such as murder, to manipulate an individual’s mental state and brain function, monitoring their responses.
As the film commences, director Jonathan Liebesman instantly demonstrates what he can do. With such a tough exterior the film has a few jolts, firstly with a death scene. This, among a few others, is a moment that literally makes you jump out of your seat and your heart pound twice as fast as it should. When the onscreen characters get as stressed out as you with what they are seeing and experiencing, it stops your attention from dissipating from the screen. As the individuals begin to lose their minds, their sense of reality and all hope they will make it out of the room alive, you can really sense the destruction, the fright and terror building within the confinements of the room they are placed. Since the majority of the film is shot in an enclosed clinical medical unit, with the four individuals placed under a wide microscope with others viewing from outside, there is a sense of claustrophobia emitted, confinement and no way of escape.
As attempts to escape the room fail the individuals must play along with the games of the research leader. With themes having some likeness to Saw; trapped in a room with little method of escape as well as violence, shocks, and bidding farewell to the family, The Killing Room is an essential DVD for anyone one who wants to experience a terrorising voyage into the claustrophobic world of forbidden psychological experiments.
Michelle Moore