Starring
Shauna Macdonald, Oded Fehr, Amrita Acharia, Sharon Maughn, Nicholas
Farrell, Candis Nergaard. Directed by Paul Raschid. (2018/89 min).
On
Blu-ray from DARK SKY FILMS
Review
by Stinky the Destroyerđź
We’ve
all been duped by good trailers for crappy movies. But in this case,
the opposite is true.
The
trailer for White Chamber does the film a disservice, making
it look like a rip-off of the 1997 cult classic, Cube, with a
little bit of the Saw franchise thrown in for the yahoo crowd.
Fortunately, writer-director Paul Raschid has loftier ambitions.
Presumably
taking place in the near future, the United Kingdom is under military
rule and currently at-war with a resistance movement led by Narek
Zakarian (Oded Fehr). But a majority of the story takes place in and
around the titular room, which appears to be a high-tech torture
chamber. Inside is a woman (Shauna Macdonald) who’s being
interrogated from outside by Zakarian for information. She says her name is Ruth
and just a low-level federal employee who knows nothing.
When the story flashes back five days, it’s Zakarian who’s in the
chamber and “Ruth” is actually Dr. Elle Chrystler, a high-level
government researcher trying to develop a highly-addictive synthetic
drug that makes one nearly oblivious to pain. Zakarian has been
captured and she’s using him as her guinea pig to test the effects
of the drug. It’s pretty nasty stuff, and Chrystler grows
increasingly cruel as the story progresses, indifferent to the
suffering she’s inflicting.
 |
| "Where's the damn bathroom?" |
But
even then, the viewer isn’t quite certain where to place their
sympathies. Chrystler has pretty legitimate reasons for her
vindictiveness, but she’s also cold-blooded and abusive. And we
still aren’t sure what to make of Zakarian throughout most of the
film. He could very-well be the vicious murderer the government makes
him out to be, but there are several moments when he displays more
humanity than any other character.
For
the most part, it’s an intriguing story, punctuated by solid
performances by Fehr and Macdonald. The chamber itself – and the
laboratory where it’s housed – is an appropriately stark setting
(though with no visible toilet, it does prompt one to question where
Zakarian’s been relieving himself, but never mind). There are
enough narrative turns to keep things interesting - as well as a
memorably horrific scene involving fingers – at least until the
final act, which is sort-of a let-down. I haven’t yet decided to
the climactic twist is a cheat or just underwhelming. But until then,
White Chamber is much better than its derivative trailer suggests.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
TRAILER
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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