Written by Ryan Dailey
The horror genre is fraught with stories of some sort of dwelling plagued with ghosts and/or some kind of curse. This is old hat beyond a shadow of a doubt. Room 203 tries to inject fresh blood into this tired concept by interweaving a coming of age story in a tale Pagan rituals and spirits. Clocking in at 1 hour and 44 minutes, Room 203 is based on the book of the same name and directed by Ben Jagger.
Kim White (Francesca Xuereb) and Izzy Davis (Viktoria Kinyaraska) are best friends who become roommates when they decide to move in together into a modest two-bedroom apartment. Kim is the more responsible of the two, chasing a career in Journalism while Izzy is trying to get a call back for an acting job while she deals with the loss of her mother.When a pendant is birthed from a hole in Kim’s room. Kim is influenced by her new college friend, Ian, (Eric Wiegand) to look into the history of her strange new abode.
Room 203 will take horror buffs back to the early 2000’s by virtue of the fact it does a pretty decent job of paying homage to the J-Horror movies of that time.
That being said, one should not approach this film with the mindset that there will be excessive violence or frivolous profanity. Room 203 definitely plays in the same playground as The Ring and The Grudge,while not holding an MPAA rating, would more than likely be a PG-13 film.
Room 203 is not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, especially with mainstream movies today being what they are. This is where the coming of age story saves the plot. There is enough character development to make the viewer become truly invested in these protagonists. Invested into them so much, in fact, that the audience can forgive the tired horror film props like music boxes, strange necklaces and ancient newspaper headlines advertising a tale of a murder/suicide contained in the article.
The main issue with this movie is that most of the action takes place on the wrong side of the hole in the wall. This movie could have gone from mediocre to outstanding if the “other side” would have been explored in depth, much like journeying into The Further did for Insidious.
Room 203 is available to stream on Vudu and Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.