The Black Room



Many years ago, the noble Berghman family began after twin brothers had a quarrel, and the younger killed the older in The Black Room. And according to an old prophecy, the family will end the same way it began, with the younger son killing the elder in the same room. So when Baron Frederick de Berghman’s wife gives birth to twin boys, Gregor and Anton centuries later, he’s determined to find a way to divert this potential disaster. His friend Lieutenant Hassel offers the simplest solution: permanently close off the room so that none may enter.

For several long years the plan seems to have worked. Gregor is Baron, and Anton, terrified of his potential role in fulfilling the prophecy, has voluntarily left to study and travel the world, staying far away from The Black Room. But Gregor is highly disliked by the people he governs, having  long been suspected of kidnapping and killing many of the local girls. So kindly Anton has been summoned home to take over his brother’s position, much to the joy of the locals. But Gregor is the devious sort with many secrets. The biggest one being that he’s opened up a secret passage to The Black Room.



The Black Room is an American mystery/horror/thriller from 1935. I wasn’t really planning on watching it this week, but when it showed up in my list of suggested titles (presumably because I just watched The Old Dark House) I figured what the hell. So I guess this month’s unofficial theme will be…. Eh, Black and White Month, I guess. I was going to say Boris Karloff month, but I don’t think I have any other film’s of his on my list currently. And I’m not about to go looking for any more, because the list is already ungainly enough as it is and I don’t care to contribute to it. The titles are already numbered in the hundreds and I need to exercise some restraint. Anyway, I can’t think of a good segue from that last thought, so I’ll just say that I feel my choice was a good one, as I ended up rather liking this little film. Though I think it feels more like a period-piece than the straight-up horror movie it’s designated as.



I mean, I can see why the film is labeled as a horror movie, as it does have a nice, creepy aesthetic for the most part. There’s lots of stone, and candles, and darkness and shit. So it’s got a very dark, gothic vibe and I love that. But the plot itself really feels more like a mystery thriller than it does anything else. Sure, you’ve got the whole “prophecy” thing hanging in the background, so you think the film is going to go in some kind of supernatural direction at some point. And even partway through the movie even implies as much with the first death. But it never really goes there and just winds up being the story about how one asshole got his righteous comeuppance. Or, if you look at it from another angle, it’s a story about how the whole prophecy could have been avoided if the father had just destroyed the fabled “death room” in the first place. And I call it that because that’s what the room is: A death room. – Spoilers! – It’s sole purpose seems to be to house a giant pit in the center of it that you drop people down. So it’s basically a torture chamber and a convenient place to dispose of bodies. – End Spoilers! – So if they’d destroyed the room, or done the work to convert it to something else less deadly, like maybe another boring library, because I’m sure castles that barons lived in had at least half a dozen of those anyway, they may have been able to avoid the whole catastrophe.

Or, you know, maybe if the Baron had raised both his kids to be better people and hadn’t let the older one do whatever the hell he wanted and let him turn into a giant ass, the whole crappy shebang could have been avoided too (I noticed no one gave that suggestion when he was asking for help!). But I know from experience that asking lazy parents to actually parent is pretty much a lost cause, so that was probably never an option.


RIP, you lazy bastard.

Other than that though, this is a really solid little film. Yeah, the whole cliche about the good and evil twin thing was probably overdone, even back when they made it, but everything else feels really polished. The acting and characterization are excellent. At only 68 minutes, the movie moves at a good clip, yet it’s still able to give everyone a distinctive personality and backstory, something a lot of feature films today seem to still have trouble with. Boris Karloff in particular is really able to flex his acting muscles here, essentially pulling off three separate roles as the good twin, the evil twin, and then the evil twin trying to pass as the good twin, and he does a great job with all of it. Even though I think he looks a smidge too old to play someone who I suspect is only supposed to be around 30-something.


Then again, Karloff always looked like that. Poor guy probably looked like he was 50 at birth.

And of course the film looks good, with some really beautiful contrast and cinematography, and they even have a couple of very nice shots where you see two Karloffs on the screen at the same time and it looks really seamless, which I’m sure was an impressive special effects feat back in 1935. But I kinda have to say that it looks good with a caveat. Because at some point someone decided to colorize this film. And I’m not going to get into a conversation about whether or not colorizing old films is good, or a travesty against God or whatever. But I will say that I have seen decent colorized films, and that this film is not one of those films. Because holy hell does the colorized version of this thing look BAD. I don’t know if it’s just some sort of crappy transfer, or if they used AI, or if they were just being lazy asses when they were painting it, but… Woof, it’s not good. If it’s a still shot it looks okay, but once anything starts moving (which is of course all the time) the colors often bleed or overlap, making things look quite messy. But that’s assuming it was given color at all, because there are multiple instances where it’s clear that things weren’t even painted, so parts of the film still look like they’re in black and white. Or they used the wrong color, and people are standing in the background with a blue tint to their skin, looking like some really bored extra from the Walking Dead that could nom-nom someone’s face at their earliest convenience (wouldn’t that have been fun). So if you plan to watch this, do yourself a favor and stick to the black and white versions. Your eyes will thank you.




Why so blue, babe? Ha Ha!…ha….No really, why does she look like a smurf?

Possible horrible coloring aside though, I enjoyed The Black Room. It has a couple tired cliches, causing a few parts to be a little predictable, but it also has a decent overall story, a nice twist ending and a great cast that all help make up for its faults. Plus, it’s pretty short, so it moves quickly and doesn’t feel like it’s dawdling and wasting your precious time. There might not be a lot of horror here, but it’s still a fun time. So if you like these types of classic, atmospheric tales, then you could do a lot worse than The Black Room. But if you’re looking for something newer, or with more scares, then this one may bore you.

The Black Room is available on a variety of streaming services.

The Black Room is also available on DVD, either by itself or as part of a compilation. Just don’t mistake it for the 1982 or 2017 movie of the same name.

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