WRITER/director Jeremy Saulnier announced himself as a new, formidable film-making talent with his second feature, Blue Ruin, a soulful, refreshingly intelligent revenge thriller funded on Kickstarter.
Starring Macon Blair as a car-dwelling orphan turned realistically incompetent killer, the film won the International Federation of Film Critics Award at Cannes in 2013 and went on to attract rave reviews around the world.
Saulnier's follow-up, Green Room (the 'colourful' titles are just a co-incidence) is another thriller – but a rather more elemental, visceral beast than the Virginia-born, Brooklyn-based film-maker's previous cinematic calling card.
It's been generating plenty of buzz on the festival circuit thanks to brutally tense storytelling and a perfectly cast, against-type performance from Patrick Stewart as Darcy, a chillingly cold-blooded white supremacist leader and middle-of-nowhere rock club owner who's forced to dispose of a visiting punk rock band after they see something they shouldn't.
Watching beleaguered punk rock brats The Ain't Rights (who include Anton Yelchin and Alia Shawkat) attempting to escape Stewart's club/neo-Nazi bunker provides a seriously intense, gripping and darkly hilarious viewing experience.
Inspired by Saulnier's experiences in the Washington DC hardcore music scene of the 80s/90s and paying deliciously gory homage to the violent 'genre' flicks that first inspired him to get behind a camera, Green Room retains the 'rooted in reality' story-telling and characters of his previous hit while cranking the anxiety levels and gleefully indiscriminate violence up to maximum volume
As with the best genre fare, it's definitely a film best experienced with an audience.
"Crowd reaction is key – I definitely get high off that energy," enthuses the writer director, who also got a big kick out of introducing a certain Royal Shakespeare Company-trained, Starship Enterprise and X-Men commanding Thespian to the visceral thrills of genre cinema.
"This is Patrick Stewart's very first genre film and the first time he's experienced seeing one of his own films with a 'film festival' kind of crowd," explains Saulnier.
"For the North American premiere we opened Midnight Madness in Toronto and I was just so excited to offer Patrick the chance to enjoy that – he had never experienced one of his own films with such a vocal crowd who clapped, cheered and gasped all the way through.
"He had an absolute ball."
While Green Room is Saulnier's third feature after Blue Ruin and Murder Party, his comedy/horror debut from 2007 that was little-seen outside the US, it seems the idea for the punk rock-themed film had been kicking around for a while.
Little wonder then that it has the raw, uncompromising feel of a first-time feature.
"It certainly pre-dates Blue Ruin by several years, but it's something I just didn't have the resources to make on my own," he confirms of the $5 million movie (Blue Ruin cost just under $500k).
"So Green Room is kind of a debut – this is probably the idea I've been wanting to make for the longest time. It was great to finally be able to expel all that I'd been holding inside for 20 years.
"I also wanted to archive my experiences in the hardcore punk scene because I'd sort of lost touch with it. In researching the movie I interviewed some of my good friends growing up and got to share some wonderful stories that I had not recalled – many of which included me.
"I have a generally terrible memory but with a few really important visual moments that are like seared into my brain.
"Hopefully, the feeling that this film evokes will remind people of great 1980s cinema – fun, scary and atmospheric but still crafted in a way that's responsible and grounded and has some emotional resonance to it."
Saulnier cites The Thing, First Blood, RoboCop, River's Edge, Platoon and Commando as being among his influences on Green Room.
"They were just so fun and felt kind of 'hand-made' – they didn't try too hard with convoluted plots and all this extra junk that makes modern films feel like they're made by committee," he tells me.
John Landis's perfectly-pitched, Rick Baker practical effects-enhanced horror comedy An American Werewolf in London was also a touchstone.
"His films are hilarious, but there's also a very high level of craft to them: they are 'cinema'," he enthuses of Landis, who also brought us favourites like The Blues Brothers, Animal House and Trading Places.
"It's hard to find that these days – now comedies are just a bunch of improv actors being funny while the camera happens to be rolling."
Having now featured in all three Saulnier flicks, the excellent Macon Blair can legitimately claim to be Bruce Campbell to the writer/director's Sam Raimi, while the presence of Patrick Stewart has undoubtedly given Green Room a huge amount of extra clout.
"Our financiers wanted a movie star," recalls Saulnier of how he found his film's chief villain.
"I just wanted someone who wanted to come play and make a movie. Enthusiasm and dedication puts everyone in a very safe position once you're at each other's mercy while making a movie.
"My management company suggested Patrick and I thought, 'Sure, why not – let's see if Sir Patrick Stewart wants to do this crazy punk movie'.
"But, surprisingly enough, he was engaged very quickly."
Fatefully, the veteran actor had been on the lookout for a 'bad guy' role: legend has it that the first read of Green Room prompted Stewart to lock his doors and reach for a large, stiff drink.
"He loved the unfailing nature of the script and felt really affected by it," confirms Saulnier, who secured Stewart for the role just 10 days prior to production.
"Although him coming on board was crazy last-minute, we were definitely on the same page in terms of what his character had to be. We got to know each other on set and I think by the second week we'd solidified our trust and were having a ball."
:: Green Room (18, 95mins) is in cinemas from Friday May 13.
