Night Visions Film Festival is a biannual gore fest, the biggest and most beautiful horror/sci-fi -oriented film festival in Finland. Once again, it offered bloodthirsty audiences zombie apocalypses, mutant attacks, psychotic killers and the occasional heart-warming indie drama. Like The Room.
What can be said about this wonderfully demented piece of cinema that hasn’t been said already? The Internet is filled with amateur film reviewers ranting on about the absurdity of The Room, yet nobody ever seems to get sick of it. It’s one of those films that is so ridiculous, you can’t help but love it. Forget about Plan 9 From Outer Space — Tommy Wiseau’s love triangle drama is the worst movie on the planet!
The main plot focuses on a banker named Johnny (mind-crushingly bad Wiseau) and his fiancée, Lisa (Juliette Danielle). She is having an affair with Johnny’s best friend, Mark (Greg Sestero), who for some reason seems to forget the fact after every time they make out. Other characters come and go, the dialogue makes no sense, and the first time viewer has only one question on her mind: ”What the heck am I watching?”
Night Visions has showed this cult classic twice before, in spring 2012 and 2013. This year’s screening was naturally sold out, too, so those who had free entry had to sit on the floor. Not the worst place to sit, if you didn’t want any plastic spoons to land on your head. Yeah, spoons.
If you ever go see The Room, you should know that there are some rules. Besides lip-syncing the whole film, there are scenes that require some yelling from the audience.
1. Spoons!Johnny and Lisa’s taste in art is … just as weird as the movie itself. Whenever you see a framed picture of a spoon in their house, you throw plastic spoons and yell at the top of your lungs.
2. Sestosterone!You shout this every time Mark (Sestero) appears on the screen.
3. Cancer!In a particularly odd scene, Lisa’s mother casually says she has breast cancer. The issue is never mentioned again.
4. Denny!When Johnny’s creepy ward enters, you should greet him with a cheerful ”Hi, Denny!”. When he leaves, be nice and shout ”Bye, Denny!”
5. GO! GO! GO! GO!Chant when the camera follows cars on the San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge during transition scenes. This happens a lot, so the audience won’t forget that the movie still takes place in San Francisco.
6. Who are you?!This is the question when random characters appear.
This is definitely a film to watch in a room full of The Room fans. The cheesy lines are a hundred times funnier when the audience shouts them all together. Due to its cult following, The Room is regularly shown in many cinemas around the world. So if you still haven’t taken part in this hilarious interactive movie experience, memorize the epic dialogue, buy some picnic spoons and check your local theater’s next show – and don’t forget to check out Night Visions next spring!
The Complete Viewer’s Guide to ‘THE ROOM‘The Room Official TrailerNight Visions infoJames Franco to adapt Greg Sestero’s memoir about The Room