gpeltz Room 33 (2009) is Directed by Edward Barbini , who also wrote it with Donnie Dale. Spoiler alert as I will be discussing plot points. First impression, Watchable but unintelligible. The longer it goes on the less sense it makes. The obvious set up, A group of mixed young people stranded overnight at a haunted, long abandoned Asylum. There they are terrorized by a stalking killer, and an abandoned young girl who haunts the vacant building. What makes this a bit different, and gives it it's twist? Unlike most teen victim films, here the girls in the group are tough as nails, roller derby brawlers. They are accompanied by their roadies and tech crew. Allie and Chad, played by Austin Highsmith and Chad Collins, are two unfortunates, stranded in the middle of nowhere, are happy to be picked up by the roller blade team, Sarah the leader of the pack is played by Nina Hausser. A nasty tempered loner. The group is well played and the dynamics are interesting. for a while. Then the plot gets in the way. Here there is not much of a plot , Rather the movie resorts to the standard set of clichés to take us to the inconclusive conclusion. The dark form running before the camera, accompanied by mysterious sound effect, has long since ceased being an effective jump scare. In this movie "I'll find them" is an overused phrase. Anytime there are group separations, and there are many, "You stay here, I'll find them" is put into play. Then there is the mysterious figure that disappears before the surveillance cameras. The Creepy girl who talks in voices, "You are all going to die" And so on. Production values are good, effects are minimal, It is the roundabout ending that is problematic. Here it is the writers who fumbled with the hit and miss plot points. In the end it did not really matter, just ride it through like a Roller blade session. Seven out of Ten, "Mindless pleasure" Stars

loomis78-815-989034 Some Roller Derby girls on their way to a match with their managers come across a broken down car and its occupants Allie (Highsmith) and Chad (Collins). When the van won't start the girls and the rag tag team of people discovers the only thing close by is an abandoned hospital that once was an insane asylum. They search the place and come across what seems to be a remaining patient named Roxy (Olivia Leigh) who seems crazy. When one of the members of the group turns up dead, Sarah (Hauser) thinks it is Roxy, but Allie doesn't and sticks up for her. The group is being stalked by a mysterious man in black with supernatural powers. This one is really all over the place when it didn't really have to be. Obviously low budget, the movie is full of weird characters and silly circumstances. Did they really need to be Roller Derby chicks? And did we really need to see no less than three of them try to escape the asylum on roller skates? This silly stuff is mixed in with a pretty straight forward approach by the film makers to at least try to make it scary. Some of the acting is really quite good but it is unfocused because of the weird wrappings of things like chicks wearing skates talking tough. This one tries hard but can't seem to get out of its own way and bring some real scares.

Woodyanders A group of road trippers that includes two survivors of an automobile accident and an all-female roller derby team are forced to seek shelter at a dilapidated abandoned mental institution located deep in the woods. The group discover the frightened and enigmatic Roxy (a sturdy and sympathetic performance by Olivia Leigh) living on the premises. Moreover, a mysterious Man in Black (a genuinely creepy portrayal by Taras Los) starts picking folks off left and right. Director Edward Barbini, who also co-wrote the compelling script with Donnie Dale, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, evokes a strong sense of decay, isolation, and vulnerability from the rundown remote setting, effectively creates and sustains a nicely spooky atmosphere that becomes more increasingly eerie and unsettling as the narrative unfolds, and provides a few cool bits of mild gore (the killer removes his victims' eyes). The sound acting from an attractive and capable cast helps a lot, with especially stand-out work by Nina Hauser as the snippy and angry Sarah, Austin Highsmith as the sweet Allie, Adam Key as resourceful and libidinous hipster Stewart, Kim Manning as the sassy Barbie San Juan, Nicole Dionne as the foxy Natasha, Chad Michael Collins as nice guy Chad, and Ace Gibson as antsy coach Nelson. Terence Pratt's crisp cinematography gives this picture an impressive polished look. Blair Anderson's shivery score hits the spine-tingling spot. The final explanation for what's going on is pretty sad and tragic. Worth a watch.

Matt Kracht What you're promised: a group of roller derby girls and a few guys crash at a abandoned, haunted insane asylum. Oooh, creepy.What you get: many shots of girls wearing very little clothing, a killer ghost, and quite a few scenes of people walking down hallways in an abandoned building. Also, a bit of digging around in old filing cabinets, scanning documents that say "CLASSIFIED".Does it live up to the promises? Sure. Some of the girls even put on Rollerblades. There's a bit of hurried exposition that explains the mystery of the haunted asylum, but I wasn't paying enough attention, so I never really learned what was going on. It doesn't bother me. I can live without knowing the secret of this nameless asylum.This was a pretty generic movie. The acting was pretty decent, even good at times, but the writing and directing never impressed me. It's not like it was especially bad or anything, but they never went anywhere more creative or interesting than your average haunted house movie. Along with the lack of atmosphere or tension, that makes for a bit of a lame horror movie. While exploitative in nature, this movie is curiously inhibited, with no real gratuitous nudity or gore, though there's a voyeuristic strip scene and a few quick shots of mutilated corpses. So, in the end, I'm left wondering to whom this movie was intended. It's not gratuitous enough for exploitation fans, and it's too tame for horror fans. The leads are obviously too old (mid-to-late 20s) to appeal to teenagers, and it doesn't seem to work very well as a mystery, either. Does that mean it's a bad movie? No, certainly not. But that does keep it from being very memorable. It can't hurt to watch this movie, if you find it on a streaming service, like Netflix, but I wouldn't actually waste the time otherwise.