Brandon Rice writes and directs What Lives in Room 214? This one feels like a delicious cross between Faust, Hotel California and a small touch of Grand Guignol. Rice shows us the most costly of all addictions; in this case being addicted to self aggrandizing. Anyone in the entertainment industry knows this curse and Rice shows us how it creeps in.
And consumes us…
The What Lives in Room 214? Story
In a nutshell, “214” is a room with many realities. Each character (re) enacts their own reality. Repeatedly. A reality that is out of sync and with a fractured timeline.
It feels like 214 may well be the antechamber to Hell? Cory King, a struggling actor who “makes it” via his last picture. The Corner Room shoots King out of a B character actor to one who delivers. He moves into 214. There is, however, a resident already there. This person occupies a different reality in the same room.
Paul has a ethereal connection to the film; within a film, and may have more than one connection to Dylan.
The Fourth Wall
The fourth wall gets broken a number of times. In a nod to the Hotel California reference above each character; whose reality we are privy to, states: “I can leave whenever I want.” Each one, who disturbingly repeats this phrase to the camera, has a look that belies the statement. These doomed people know they are never leaving.
Perhaps they share something with Harlan Ellison‘s Hitler Painted Roses. Included in the short story collection Strange Wine. In the short story the portals to Hell open by an overt act of hypocrisy. Everyone escapes, bar Hitler. He sits patiently by an open door painting his roses.
In What Lives in 214? It is not hypocrisy that is the ill striking these unfortunate souls, it is their addiction to success. They must be special and this horrid existence does nothing to stifle this need.
The Main Cast
Adam Joseph Turner is Cory King.
Timothy J Cox is Paul Dinner.
Rachel Moore is Mandy.
Jennifer Rizzi Horvath is Ellie.
Marc Ross is Mark.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
This splendid bit of “business” is strongly evocative of the Tom Stoppard play/film. *The only bit of an audition piece, for credit, that I worked on “back in the day.” The absurdist piece towards the end of the film is brilliant. A scene that shows just how weird and disconcerting the tale actually is.
What Lives in Room 214? shoots up into the dizzying heights of slyly poking at other Hotel Room Horror offerings. We can almost feel the heavy breathing of the protagonist of Stephen King’s The Overlook Hotel (The Shining) and its own haunted room.
Reality Sucks
Every reality in this world, sucks. Like The Shining, there comes a point of “Masks off!” We see the damage done and it makes us think of prices to be paid for success.
The Film Works
214 is like a honey trap, or perhaps a venus flytrap, the characters are captured by their own hubris, or self importance. The room appears to play each player’s worst and best fantasies. Colin loses everything for his fame? Paul seems to be passing the torch on to the new resident celeb in the hotel.
Rice, with his band of merry followers; i.e. Cast and Crew, put this fractured tale together with admirable panache. With a budget of an estimated 5K (Source IMDb.com) the film itself looks spot on.
Cinematographer Samuel L. Fronsman fills each frame with details, all of which push this story along. Composer Mark Murray gives us a soundtrack that sells each scene. Sarah Crowder; Makeup FX, is nigh on perfect. The decision to hop back and forth in timelines of each reality works very well.
Cast is King
Timothy J Cox never disappoints, full stop. His skill as a storyteller and as an actor always delivers. Adam Joseph Turner, who actually makes me think of John Cusack (A nod to 1408, of which there are a few, that helps sell the premise wonderfully.) does brilliantly here. Everyone in the cast swing for the fences and it works.
The Verdict
What Lives in Room 214? is a solid 5 star effort. Fans of horror films, of this particular genre; Psychological Horror, will be in heaven. *Ironic isn’t it?* Everything works and each vignette interweaves to drag us into Hell with this group of players.
The film is currently running the festival circuit. Check out the trailer below and get ready to watch this after its run.
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