'Green Room' Is the Gruesome New Punk-Rock Movie That Will Leave You Reeling

Back in 2013, no one was really paying attention to Jeremy Saulnier. At the time, Saulnier had been doing commercial work and perfecting his cinematography chops with under-appreciated indies like Putty Hill and Septien. With only one feature under his belt—2007's Slamdance-winning Murder Party—it seemed like a long shot that his newest, Blue Ruin, would be one of the biggest breakout hits of the Cannes Film Festival.

However, the film struck a chord with genre fans, and studios took notice, showering him with scripts and offers to do more mature works. Instead, Saulnier took it as an opportunity, he told me, "to make the movie for my 19-year-old self and all the friends I grew up with, to regress emotionally and progress technically." And that's just what Saulnier has done with his latest film, Green Room. Like Blue Ruin, Green Roompremiered in the Directors' Fortnight section, which is held parallel to the Cannes Film Festival.

Clip from 'Green Room' (2015)

With Green Room, we get is another burner of a genre pic about a young punk band, The Ain't Rights, who find themselves in a secluded, backwoods, neo-Nazi, dog-fighting, drug-running hellhole of a DIY music venue run by a bearded and cold-blooded Patrick Stewart. Through a series of unfortunate events, the band—played by an unlikely cast of traditionally indie comedy and romantic leads, including Anton Yelchin and Alia Shawkat—becomes trapped in the eponymous room, trying to force their way out.

I sat down with director Jeremy Saulnier in Cannes to discuss the film, the damage of the helmet-wearing era, and which bands' discographies he would want with him in a siege situation.

VICE: How did Green Room come about?
Jeremy Saulnier: It's been kicking around my brain for a long time. I grew up in the punk rock scene in Washington, DC, more the hardcore scene of the 90s. It was also a period of time where I was making all of these crazy home movies, zombie flicks, and whatnot with my friends from Alexander, Virginia. When I went to NYU film school for college, that culture and aesthetic stayed with me until now.

Now it's over?
[Laughs] I don't know. I don't listen to hardcore or abrasive music really anymore. It really is, as referenced in the movie, about being there—the physicality of it. It's like cheap Mad Max —spikes, boots, surplus gear, mohawks, and madness. No post-apocalypse though. I always thought a movie about that would be fun, and what better place to set a siege movie than a green room of a concert venue?

That's what scares me though. A batshit-crazy movie hidden under the surface of a calm dude like you—that's messed up. Are you boiling under your cool demeanor?
I was also into hip-hop and had been in the B-boy scene in New York, breaking on the floor. [I was into] whatever was physical. I was the leader of these punk rock bands in high school because I was really built at the time. I had no talent, but I could yell loud. I really liked to dance and move and be in that world. When I talk about it, it's certainly not the same. I am still socially awkward, though.

I grew up with punk, too. But I, in my dreams, would envision doing crazy shit—taking my anger out. Is that where this is coming from?
I'm more like a jock that hates sports. I wasn't unhappy, though. I actually grew up in the suburban, middle-class utopia of the 80s and 90s, where Halloween was just hoards of kids being crazy in the street unattended by their parents—things that just don't go down now. We were making movies in the streets with very realistic plastic guns and blood packs oozing into the curbside, but it was pre-Columbine. People just assumed we were doing crazy kid stuff, they'd maybe yell, "Are you OK?" and we'd say, "Yeah." We played with machine guns out of the roofs of cars and no one blinked. Nowadays, there would be a SWAT team in a second.

Do you miss that freedom?
Oh yeah, for my kids—everyone's kids. It's people crossing the line, it's proliferation of gun violence, and also the news-media cycle, where all we hear about is tragedy, violence, and murder… and ISIS. I have to keep true to my roots, though, and have a firm boundary between reality and cinema. I still like hyper-violent, hardcore genre movies. In real life, I'm very peaceful and don't like any violence, so it's an easy boundary to maintain.

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So what were you trying to prove by having this poor, poor punk band get the shit kicked out of them?
It was an exercise in tension-building—to make an old-fashioned siege movie in a relatively new environment and have it be much more intuitive and not fall prey to standard things that I think are just not exciting. Inept protagonists are kind of my thing right now, exploring a real, human character in an action-movie scenario. I wrote it intuitively and wanted it to be true to human nature. I put them in this really intense clusterfuck, and we watch it unfold.

That's what's refreshing about your movies. If you shout, "Don't go in there!" it's because you genuinely fear for them, not because it makes no sense.
Sometimes I'd only allow myself to do only one draft of a scene so it wouldn't be overly thought-out and mathematical plot-wise. I wanted to deprive myself of trying to be smart and sharp. I call it the blunt-force movie. The plot would deviate because the characters do what they would actually do and maybe one of them would make a really dumb decision, but it was in the moment and seemed natural at the time.

There's a very formal structure to this film visually and thematically. Where we start and where we end is very calculated, but the mess in between was fun to not over think.

Did that come with improvisation?
No, it was too crazy a movie to improvise, but it felt improvised when I wrote it.

Why skinheads and neo-Nazis? Did you have to do research? Embed yourself?
In the 90s, in the hardcore scene, there were always skinheads lurking. There were often fights and they were the violent, scary contingent at shows. I'd always feared them and been fascinated by them at how that ideology could carry over. A lot of it was the attractiveness of the punk rock music and how a lot of the people who professed that ideology used music to recruit kids who are in some way broken emotionally or on their own and find it in this community. That's a key theme in the movie, and there is a moment where this out of town band plays to a hostile crowd and through the music there's this sort of synergy, where it's just about the music and everything else drops away.

Except when they play a song like "Nazi Punks Fuck Off " by Dead Kennedys.
Nazis are kind of easy for movie bad guys, so the goal was to set it in that world, but also humanize every character.

When the actors read your script, I assume their reactions where, "What the fuck?!"
Oh yeah, they just loved it. It's their kind of movie.

You say their kind of movie, but you cast unconventionally. Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and Alia Shawkat are all known for more romantic or indie comedy films.
Exactly. They're dying because they get typecast, but for them to be in a batshit-crazy action movie was a dream. They were chomping at the bit to be in it. Imogen had an absolute blast. She really related to her character Amber, and they're still actually playing the roles they normally do. But now they're just in the wrong movie.

How does it feel premiering at Cannes two times in a row? Did you watch the movie with the audience at your premiere?
It's like a vacation. And yes, at Cannes, it's customary you do for the evening performance. However, I ran out of the theater a little prematurely [ laughs]. I kind of blew it as far as protocol because I was just so embarrassed to stand up and have people clap for me.

At this type of movie, it has to be an exhilarating experience when you hear the audience screaming and squirming in their chairs.
There's certainly a payoff with this kind of film.

Do you take pleasure in freaking people out?
As long as there's an emotional component to it, I do. If you set out just to shock people, it won't work very long. But if you design the film to keep ratcheting up tension and keep people off guard, once you deny them the conventions of a lot of movies, they really feel like they have no idea where it's going to go. The thrill is being unpredictable, and it allows them to sort of experience the events through the characters' eyes, to be in that room with them and have no clue what is happening next and be scared of whatever is on the other side of that door. I felt that to elicit a physical emotional response in the audience is very hard to do, so that was the goal with this film. It was to make people's hearts beat faster and make their breath a little shorter. It's what I look for in a movie when I really need a break from reality. I love to be scared, but it's hard to be scared by a movie. You can't shock people anymore—you have to go the emotional route.

And what's your favorite desert-island band?
It is Black Sabbath. Ozzy and Dio. One band, one brand.

But if I lock you in a green room and try to kill all of your friends?
Depends on the day. It could be the Talking Heads, maybe the Cure. Those are my top three.

Green Room premiered at Cannes Film Festival this May. It is currently seeking US distribution.

Jeffrey Bowers is a tall mustached guy from Ohio who's seen too many weird movies. He currently lives in Brooklyn, working as a film curator. He's the senior curator for Vimeo's On Demand platform. He has also programmed at Tribeca Film Festival, Rooftop Films, and the Hamptons International Film Festival.Find him on Twitter.