Review: Room 203

BFFs Francesca Xuereb and somewhat reckless Viktoria Vinyarska move into the title apartment. Xuereb starts to suspect it’s haunted, particularly disturbed by a stained glass window that is even creepier than the creepy landlord. So she and her new man (Eric Wiegand) start to look into the history of the apartment. Then there’s a creepy-arse necklace, and someone gets possessed by a demonic entity.

 

A really good opening act had me thinking this 2022 film from director Ben Jagger (“Corbin Nash” with Corey Feldman, Malcolm McDowell, and Rutger Hauer) was somewhere up my horror alley. I like a good haunting movie as much as the next person. Yes, some of the imagery is clearly J-horror inspired, but for a while, Jagger doesn’t lean too hard in that direction. It’s quite creepy and unnerving at times, and you actually care about the lead character and her BFF. Their bond is quite strongly felt, and character is key to me. Unfortunately, it’s based on a novel by Japanese writer Nanami Kamon and was produced by Japanese producers, so yeah…the film is essentially J-horror in Anglo guise. That’s ultimately not my thing at all, your mileage may differ.

 

Like a lot of J-horror films it’s more concerned with investigation/mystery than horror/tension/terror. Worse, the film pretty much forgets about the BFF/roommate altogether, making you wonder what the point of all that dramatic relationship emphasis was. Worst, the mystery is pretty dang obvious. Sadly, some potentially interesting and creepy material gets wasted.

 

This one bogs down just as it should be at the point of ramping up the horror. I’ll give it a decent rating for everything I did like in the film’s first half and those J-horror inclined might want to check it out. It’s not bad, it’s just ultimately not my thing. The screenplay is by Jagger, along with John Poliquin (director of “Grave Encounters 2”) and Nick Richey (writer-director of something called “Low Low”).

 

Rating: C+