Review: Room 203

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

Room 203
Directed by Ben Jagger
Ammo Entertainment; Vertical Entertainment; Voltage Pictures
104 minutes, 2022
www.vert-ent.com/
https://ammo-ent.com/

Apparently, 203 appears in many films on hotel or room numbers, if one does a Google search. According to one numerology site, “the number 203 resonates with freedom and experience…203 energy also resonates with relationships, with infinite possibilities, and with creative expression [and] can give rise to unanticipated and intense experience.” Also, 203 is a prime number (for those fans of the 1997 film Cube).

In this case, the pre-furnished Room 203 is located in an apartment building in Shreveport, Louisiana. It’s quite a lovely place, with a huge stained-glass window (leading to an amusing TS Eliot reference) giving a nice light and an imbuing an almost religious tone, presenting what looks like Knights Templars in battle. But the prologue shows that there is the presence of evil rather than good (not that any religion is necessarily good). This sets up the tone for the rest of what is to follow.

 

Francesca Xuereb, Vicktoria Vinyarska

We are introduced to blonde Kim (Francesca Xuereby), who is moving into the apartment, despite the reluctance of her parents. Mind you, she is on her way to start college as a journalism major (psych minor), so… Kim is to share the place with her lifelong friend (and “bad influence,” according to Kim’s mom, who’s a real peach), brunette wannabe actor Izzy (Vicktoria Vinyarska). The different hair colors can symbolize a few things, such as classical good (light, or pure) and evil (dark or troubled), or it could just be to help the viewer immediately distinguish between the two as we “meet” them.

Thanks to renovations, the top floor (20th, I am assuming) is empty, except for Kim and Iggy’s flat, and the obligatorily weird and robotically edgy landlord, Ronan (Scott Gremillion) who lives down the hall. Then Kim meets video journalist major Ian (Eric Wiegand, who reminds me a bit of Thurston Moore of the band Sonic Youth), and, ‘tah-dah,’ new boyfriend.

Thanks to the film’s prologue introduction, we know two key elements about the apartment, one being that one of the walls has something weird and mysterious happening, and the others are a locket that is more than a piece of metal and a miniature music box.

After some Izzy sleepwalking with the music box and other weirdness, Kim starts to get suspicious that something in the apartment is off. For a journalism student, it took her a while, but her and Ian start their research, which of course leads to some…research, if you get mah drift. This comes as no surprise, even if it is pretty fast. Canoodling comes quicker than realizing something is amiss and wanting to figure it out, which seems strange to me.

This could have easily been a Sigle White Female (1992) roommate from hell situation, but in this case the hell part is a bit more accurate as the story progresses past the first introductory act. There are a lot of layers in the film, even though it’s a bit of a slow burn with a bunch of jump scares, such as possession, ancient curses, a creepy industrial basement space, and a resident evil entity called The Morrígu, “a figure from Irish mythology… and it has been translated as ‘great queen’ or ‘phantom queen’… is mainly associated with war and fate especially with foretelling doom, death, or victory in battle. In this role she often appears as a crow … and [is] a shape-shifting goddess.” (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

As the third act unravels, we learn the truth behind secrets (one I should have seen from a mile away, but missed completely) and then there is the battle between, natch, good an evil.

A quibble I have here, and is too common in indie cinema these days, is that some of the film is quite dark. Even the apartment, at night, the old table lamps are just not bright enough; personally, I would buy higher wattage bulbs and brighten the place up a bit. To be fair, you can make out what is happening, but I had to have my monitor tilted at just the right angle to see the events unfolding, such as in the basement.

My big question, though, is as follows: Kim calls the apartment “affordable,” but I am wondering how the two women can afford it with what seems like no apparent means of support; certainly not from Kim’s apathetic parents. Kim is a college student who Zooms her classes (it takes place as the Covid pandemic was kicking off in Spring 2020), so perhaps a scholarship? Izzy goes on some auditions, but those don’t pay. My other query, and this is trite and silly, but It’s a pretty big space, with at least two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom, so shouldn’t it be Apartment 203 rather than Room 203?

All-in-all, with a relatively slow first couple of acts with some fun bits thrown in and lots of expository of present events and shady information on past ones, the third act is compelling and comes to a pretty satisfactory conclusion.

The film is available on all major VoD platforms, including iTunes, Prime Video, DirecTV, Cox, Time-Warner, Dish, Vudu, and Google Play.

IMBD Listing HERE