This movie really was a nice surprise. I find that with all movies besides maybe comic book movies, its better to not know anything about the movie before you watch it. Trailers are okay, unless it’s a comedy of course. In that case you’ll see 95% of the funny scenes before you head to the theaters. Anyway, I didn’t even watch the trailer for this movie I went in blind and came out seeing stars.
Based on the name and movie poster I expected this movie to involve a killer finding their victims online in a chatroom. I wasn’t that far off. The movie centers around five main characters that meet in a chat room and quickly become online friends. At first the movie itself was somewhat confusing. The director Hideo Nakata really films the movie in an interesting way. It switches back from the real world view of the characters to what is best described as a virtual view of themselves. The virtual view is better described as what it would look like to be physically in the internet and look through different chat rooms. If you’ve ever seen the Chappelle Show episode where he enters the internet its similar to that.
Back to the characters. Of the five main characters the movie mostly focuses on two. One is named Jim (Matthew Beard) the other is William (Aaron Johnson). The other main characters, Eva(Imogen Poots), Emily(Hannah Murray), and Mo(Daniel Kaluuya). Each of them have a somewhat developed character. The main premise is that all of these characters hate someone, but Jim hates himself, hence the depression. I’m not going to spoil the movie but essentially the movie boils down to Jim being very depressed and persuaded to stop taking his anti-depression medication by Willaim via the online chat room. William then makes it his main goal to get Jim to commit suicide. Its not really a scary movie, but is a pretty dark movie.
There are some nice little twists here and there, although I saw them coming. There are really two dimensions of this movie that I found out about after watching the movie and doing some research. The first is that the actors are all English and the movie seemingly takes place somewhere in England; however, the movie was released in France and was directed by Hideo Nakata. Nakata also directed Ringu, Ring 2(Japanese version) and The Ring Two (American version). It makes sense that the movie in my opinion was directly so well and in such an interesting way, the guys got experience with dark themed movies. The other dimension are the actors Imogen Poots and Aaron Johnson. Poots as been in a lot of big name movies and I immediately recognized her. You may know her from V for Vendetta, 28 Weeks Later, Solitary Man, and Centurion. Johnson has been in Nowhere Boy(as John Lenon), Kick-Ass and is slated to be in Kick-Ass 2:Balls to the wall. I thought that Poots character was well portrayed but almost a step backward from her upward trend in popular movies. Johnson I thought was the best of the actors and actresses in the movie, his character deals with a lot of difference emotions some coming in rapid succession and he portrays it well, especially at the turning point of the movie. To be honest I felt Matthew Beard had a great performance as well but based on his IMDB page is doesn’t seem as though he’s been in anything recognizable.
All in all I think this movie is a lot in the league of Donnie Darko, minus the cult following. Donnie Darko was a good dark themed movie but it was weird. The same goes for Chatroom. It was a good movie with interesting filmography and plot points but I can really best describe it as just a dark themed weird movie. Definitely check it out if you want a non-mainstream movie treat!
Trailer Below:
Chapelle Show Skit Referenced is embedded below for your convenience.
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