Anchor Bay presents

Room 6 (2006)

"Did you see his face? He wasn't human. It was something...different."- Amy (Christine Taylor)

Stars: Christine Taylor, Jerry O'Connell, Shane Brolly
Other Stars: Ellie Cornell, Chloe Moretz, Stacy Fuson, Mary Pat Gleason, Katie Lohmann, Jill Montgomery, Jack Reilly, Kane Hodder, Peter Mackenzie, Billy Gardell
Director: Mike Hurst

Manufacturer: Crest National
MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (horror violence, nudity)
Run Time: 01h:33m:43s
Release Date: 2006-06-13
Genre: horror

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
C+	C	B-	B-	B-

 

DVD Review

Maybe it's a bad omen, but when Shane Brolly's name is spelled "Shane Brolley" on the advance copy of the front and back cover (no less than three times) then perhaps that is an indicator that something is very wrong. Sure, it's just a typo—not really an indicator of a particular film's merits—but yet it does seem like an ugly pimple that just gets bigger and uglier the more you look at it. And while it seems to have been corrected for the final version, mine still says "Brolley" in big white letters and I just have to laugh a little.

Room 6 is a low-budget horror title from writer/director Michael Hurst (House of the Dead 2), centering on some kind of demonic hospital that exists in the vaguely explained nether region between reality and I guess "the other side/" The creepy place—St. Rosemary's—is like a roach motel for humans that makes the hospital in Halloween 2 look positively overcrowded, and when one withered old character refers to it as "that dreadful place." we know there's a deep dark secret that we could all probably guess if we put our genre-loaded minds to it.

And poor Shane "They Spelled My Name Wrong" Brolly, as Nick, spends 90-percent of his time trapped in St. Rosemary's after a traffic accident, and has to rely on his severely hospital-phobic, perpetually shrieking girlfriend Amy (Christine Taylor) to rescue him, along with Lucas (Jerry O'Connell), who is also looking for someone swallowed up by the mysterious hospital. The downside to St. Rosemary's is that it appears that you are destined to die a horrible death there, though the upside includes hot nurses played by onetime Playboy Playmates (Stacy Fuson, Katie Lohmann), with the next downside being that said hot nurses like to drink blood. And lots of it.

Tossed in for potentially good measure are a spooky kid (Chloe Moretz) with visions, a white-trash mom (Ellie Cornell), and a walk-on role by Kane "Jason Voorhees" Hodder as a homeless demon, as well as cinematography by Ray Stella (Halloween), but even with a story that begins like a long-form Twilight Zone ep with a dose of giallo styling, the payoff falls well short of wished for expectations.

Taylor spends too much time shrieking repeatedly to be anything other than a cute annoyance in a film that really needed a stronger, more troubled and tormented lead; I would have preferred the story be about young Chloe Moretz, because that one seemed much more interesting, and with more creepy potential than an adult woman afraid of hospitals. Instead—after doing a rather cursory glance of local hospitals for her missing boyfriend Nick—Taylor's shrieky Amy decides to forget about it, go home, get some sleep and worry about it tomorrow.

That's good advice.

Rating for Style: C+
Rating for Substance: C

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.77:1 - Widescreen
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	yes

Image Transfer Review: Room 6 comes from Anchor Bay in a 1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The print appears in decent shape, with colors and fleshtones coming across somewhat inconsistent, occasionally appearing a bit too red, with black levels on some of the hospital interiors a little muddy.

For a low budget title, not awful, but far from above par.

Image Transfer Grade: B-
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	English	yes
Dolby Digital 5.1	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: Audio choices are Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 surround. Large scale differences are minimal, and the 5.1 isn't quite as broadly enveloping as a film like this really needs, but it shows off the Joe Kraemer score to good effect. There some rear channel ambient cues to liven things up, and voice quality is clear and discernible at all times.

Audio Transfer Grade: B- 

Disc Extras

Full Motion menu with music
Scene Access with 16 cues and remote access
1 Original Trailer(s)
4 Other Trailer(s) featuring Masters of Horror, Demon Hunter, It Waits, The Fallen Ones
Screenplay
1 Documentaries
1 Feature/Episode commentary by Michael Hurst, Mark A. Altman
Weblink/DVD-ROM Material
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual

Extras Review: Extras include a commentary track from writer/director Mike Hurst and writer/producer Mark A. Altman, and in a refreshing change from a lot of commentaries the two actually talk effusively about the production ("the problem of naked women feeding each blood can be problematic"), the writing, the cast and modifying the story and characters while refraining from simply yacking about what is onscreen. Altman leads the charge here, and despite a final product that comes up short, the commentary reveals two guys who are noticeably passionate about the horror genre.

Hospital From Hell (40m:57s) is longer than most typical low-budget movie EPKs, and this one is a little better, too. So much so that one might almost be inclined to second guess their impressions of the film. Almost, that is. Lots of production details, behind-the-scenes shots, an in-depth look at setting up a car accident scene and plenty of interviews—though some of the Altman/Hurst input is replicated in the commentary.

There are a handful of trailers, and the film's screenplay is available via DVD-ROM access as a PDF. The feature is cut into 16 chapters, with no subtitle options.

Extras Grade: B-
 

Final Comments

This one starts out promising—with a sort of Twilight Zone-ish spin—but eventually dips into attempts at formulaic scares that never seem all that interesting.

Too much of Christine Taylor shrieking and not enough nude, blood-drinking nurses (especially when one of them is Katie Lohmann) is a venal sin.

Rich Rosell 2006-06-12