 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 1974 Italian giallo film the girl in room 2a and This is the little case for it now I'm watching it out of the vinegar syndrome forgotten gialli volume 2 Collection I've already gone through the first volume and all those reviews are available on my channel And if you're big into giallo in general, I have an entire playlist of giallo film reviews I am in 40 some I'm watching a lot of giallo. I'll tell you that much So this is the first one of the forgotten gialli volume 2 So I'm excited to go all the way through that and do all the reviews. Anyway Overall opinion on this one up front It's not a great giallo and actually of all the giallo's I've seen which is at this point 40 some It's very very low down. It's not the worst the worst for me is the pajama girl case But this one might be the second worst in my opinion. It's not that great But there are a few moments that are kind of like a so bad. It's good type deal One in particular that I love that's towards the end of the film Which I'll talk to when I kind of get to that point in my review Anyway, this film is directed by William Rose who did films such as and this should make sense to you 50,000 BC before clothing Rent a girl the smut peddler and professor lust you see where this person's forte lies or did Yeah, it was written by John Franco Baldenello who wrote scripts for long days of hate and blood river just to name a few So, yeah There I couldn't really find a whole lot of like backstory information on this or didn't look like insanely hard for that But you know, it's kind of it's a lesser-known giallo film So I do like the opening menacing music that they have in this and the intriguing setup of the woman being abducted but then the music gets kind of like overly ridiculous crazy and you know, kind of like grandiose when it goes to the sequence where the abducted woman is Being killed which I believe is Edie. Was that Edie who is being killed in it. I think that's who it was But honestly the characters don't even really matter in this because it's not that great of a film Just saying and the characters aren't that interesting either, but I'm on the the topic right now of the setup I think the setups good. It's a real good attention grabber. It makes you like, oh, I'm interested I want to know where this is going and Yeah, it kind of it devolves a lot from there, especially because of pacing issues Which you know to be honest a lot of giallo films do have pace pacing issues But they tend to kind of fill that time with other interesting things such as quirky characters or funny slash weird dialogue This one doesn't really do a whole lot of that although you get it here and there so The sense I get a Margaret is that she just got out of an asylum or jail that is Immediately established when she's getting out of that building with those giant kind of like dungeon like castle dungeon type doors and The the fact that when she's released all of a sudden you hear someone yelling in the background and the people They're kind of like hurry way to that so I was like asylum or jail So you do find out eventually it's jail and you also end up finding out that it's been a series of women who are Going from the jail to the grant house and renting a room which it's being Facilitated by Alicia who ends up being the woman in the you know red mask who's torturing people the sadist basically and She keeps hooking it up where all these women getting out of jail are going to stay in room 2a Which there's the title of the film at the grant house and then they're basically Waiting a little bit then abducting the women then taking them to this Castle location that the grant family owns where they're just torturing them and then killing them Which it seems to be kind of like a punishment thing for the sins that they've committed and Serving time in jail is just not enough for the grant family and their followers. So they're going to exact their own justice on these people That's basically it. It's it's an okay concept But the way it's you know the way it's pulled off not so hot you could you could have done a good job with it but you know Why is Margaret not concerned about a gigantic bloodspot in the middle of the room that she's about to start rent renting? Did she think it was just paint? I don't know but it looked like blood and It seemed like blood and she didn't seem to be very concerned at all now In general a lot of the characters don't seem to be as concerned as they should be in a lot of instances Especially like Margaret staying in the grant house and the amount of people that kind of like rotate in and out of that place Because the sense I get of it is there's only one room for rent there Because it's it's a house where Mrs. Grant and her son Frank live and I think even at one point It said by Mrs. Grant that oh, it's just me and Frank here So I get the idea I might be wrong But I got was getting the idea that there's just this one room that gets rented there So the fact that all these other characters just keep kind of rotating through is weird and suspicious In addition to that giant bloodspot, which good job Margaret you found a way to get it off the floor. Good job As soon as Mrs. Grant asked Margaret if she wanted to wanted a sedative in her tea I immediately thought of the woman being in Edie who I think it was being injected with whatever sedated her when she was abducted So it immediately put in my mind there is definitely going to be something wrong with Mrs. Grant and sure enough That's exactly what ends up happening. She's kind of the mastermind or one of the masterminds of all this Actually, it kind of seems like the masterminds are Mrs. Grant Dries and Alicia those three When the guy in the red well At that point I thought it was a guy potentially when the woman in the red came into Margaret's room at night And then she sees bars. I thought this this was kind of a way to set up Questioning her as a reliable narrator to kind of think is she actually seeing what's going on? Or is this kind of like it's all in her head because of the trauma of being in jail and the anxiety that she's kind of going Through with that and they did kind of set that up a decent amount Initially, but then it does kind of you know go away And then you become pretty sure that she's not just seeing things that it's you know actually what's going on The stick with the knife in it and Johnson's place cast suspicion on him because of the death in the opening scene But then he ends up getting Stabbed with that stick immediately and then jumping out the window I like that and that a little extra bit of not only does he just he doesn't just die for being stabbed He then just like Doesn't want to be tortured anymore I guess and sees no way out and just runs and throws himself out the window to his death So I'm assuming that this individual Was a part of their group and then decided he didn't want to be a part of their group anymore So they're kind of like we can't risk him running his mouth. So You know, they hold his hand on that Hot kind of like fireplace fence and burn it and then they stab him and then he jumps out the window So it's like, okay. I mean that was fine. It's a big It's a big How I don't even know is Okay, it's a bit big red flag. I had on here big red glad. I'm like what autocorrect It is a big red flag when There's the discrepancy between what Mrs. Grant says to Margaret about her husband dying and what Frank says about his father dying Obviously same person That's a big red flag and that's another one of those things where she doesn't react appropriately She seems to kind of be a little bit suspicious of it at first But then it kind of seems like it just like goes out of her mind You know right wiped right out of her mind and she's back to being fine with interacting with Mrs. Grant and Frank and kind of a normal man Or she's just like, okay You do feel like you miss portions of the story For example, the relationships Margaret forms with the grants just happen to be kind of out of nowhere And so it does feel like there are like portions of the film actually missing for that reason That said it does bring up Something I do need to say that there's basically a little blurb in the beginning of vinegar syndromes version of this film That says that what they've restored is basically the most comprehensive Version of the film that they're aware of and they actually went and took portions from the original Italian version and the International release version because there were some deleted scenes. I think for the international version that we're not in the Not in the in their international version, but we're in the Italian So they kind of like meshed those together and actually for that reason there are moments where if you're watching the English Dubs there will there will still be like little stints of the film where there is no dubbing and it just goes to The English subtitles so that is kind of interesting. I Had a feeling Edie had also been in jail I had a feeling about that when when they you know focus so much on the room 2a thing I was like, there's a pattern most likely going on here and that is exactly what ends up happening There are a lot of people who just randomly hang out around the Grant house and therefore really no explanation why That's one of the things about this film is there is stuff that just kind of seems to happen just randomly There's no real reason for it I mean, I guess all the people just hanging out and showing up popping in and out of the Grant house has to do with this A little like cult group they're in but why would they like they wouldn't do that? Especially if they're trying to not alarm Margaret before they're abducting her. I'm just saying it just doesn't make sense When Margaret finds the weird room with mannequins and that snake That was Frank's room that he does things in the music just abruptly stops while she's looking around Like it's not one of those things where it's normally done in film where the music kind of like slowly fades out Or it changes the music or something the music just abruptly stops like mid song And it was just a really weird experience because I've never had anything like that happen in a film before So it's jarring. It really is when something like that just drops off So I was just like, okay, and that scene really didn't go anywhere either. That's just one of those random things I was talking about From the first time Jack and Margaret are at the coffee at the cafe talking I could tell that they were gonna basically be end up being together Especially because they're so friendly so early and it's not just like a regular friendly It's kind of like a flirty type friendly So I knew it was going there and they have this common interest so they decided to work together So I'm like, okay, and this is the 70s. So they're gonna they're gonna get it on and they do get it on Easy to tell Margaret doesn't use her own naked body for the nude scenes How can I tell this because when she has her sex scene with Jack? They intentionally cut her head off of every scene if you notice that either they cut the head off or they're only showing From the back of the head. You never see her face. So that's not actually that actress's nude body. It's a body double Just know that When Jack and Margaret go to see Sarah her sister is awfully forthcoming with very personal information Another one of these things yet in the film that doesn't make sense how Sarah's sister who's a sister of someone who has mental health issues is Very willing to just talk about everything having to do with her sister to these two strangers It doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make sense It's another one of those things of convenience for the script to just move the story forward which like I said in all fairness like giallo does that from time to time but It it doing this this film doing this and then also not being super fun and being pretty boring a lot of the time Once Jack and Margaret talk to Sarah and you get the torturing flashback I was thinking that things were really gonna start going somewhere We're about to start getting a lot more excitement and you do get more you definitely get more it does pick up The pace at that point, but it's been such a long road that you're just kind of like are we going anywhere or what? So there is a bit of a payoff When Margaret is abducted finally, it's not a surprise because the film made everyone at the grand house seems suspicious It's kind of what I was talking about with people just kind of rotating in and out of the house Everyone already seems suspicious. There's really no big twist except for the reveal of Alicia. I think that's that's the only real one I Love how this random dude just shows up to help Jack Yeah, when Jack gets I think he was hit and like knocked out And then he's like left in the side of the road at the side of the road in this car and Literally a random person Just shows up and was like, hey, what's up, man? And then he's just like, oh, hey, could you help me out here like what? It's so random it goes back to what I'm saying like all this random stuff that happens in the film man Is it me or does it always look like Dries has just woken up from bed Like he just rolled out of bed is what he looks like He looks kind of like dirty and greasy and sweaty all the time and really just overall Unkempt and he's always just got too many buttons on button two It's just too much lunch meat out there and it's just like he's gross You know, he's like a gross dude, which I guess is fine for that character Because you know, he's not a good guy, but One of the things with that is it just it it foretells if I don't want to say foretells It foreshadows that he is a bad guy basically like it lets you know immediately Also his acting to like his acting is very sinister they don't try to hide anything about him and the fact that he's always just lurking around and Just walking in randomly just popping up wherever Okay, I like the how the woman who gets chopped with the sword when they're at the like torture palace I guess is what I'd call it. I like how she's just like stumbling around after she gets chopped I guess she got hit in the face because that's where all the blood was and It's just over the top like it's bad acting But that was kind of like a fun bad bad acting moment even though it wasn't my favorite But you got to also love how Jack shows up with his random crew of dudes To just like kick some butt and get into this place Like who were those people? I think I saw like one of those people earlier in the film But then it's just like this random dude who really you don't know who he is as an audience member He has no importance to the story is just randomly back and then he brings his buddies And he's just like yeah, I'm all in for not knowing where we're going not knowing where we're doing But I'm all for just beating some people up with no context It's just such a weird thing and then you have like the fight scenes, which actually the fight scenes weren't too bad But you felt at that moment like the movie had changed into like Walker, Texas Ranger or something like that It's just weird. It's a really weird thing And Alicia was in the Red Hood all along yes, not surprised too much But I did think that maybe it was gonna end up being Jack's sister I do kind of think it may have been a little bit better if it was Jack's sister But I guess story-wise it makes more sense that it's Alicia because then you have that connection like I was talking about earlier Which she's kind of setting it up for these women to go in you know Live with the grants and then they become fodder for this cult now I guess she was like a social worker is my feeling on that. I don't know by far the best moment in the film is when Dries slaps Mrs. Grant and she falls over and catches fire because the torch she was holding Falls on her back now. The reason I like this so much is a it's just an absurd thing to happen and be the way it shot Looks hilarious. Oh and see the acting just not good. That's another thing the acting is bad in general But that whole sequence like he slaps her She like gets spun around falls down and first of all the fact that she was just randomly holding A lit torch in the first place Why we don't know but I guess it doesn't matter because you get this wonderful scene then she falls down and it falls on top Of her I guess he slapped her so hard She was unconscious for a little bit and then she catches fire because otherwise she would you know Not allow herself to be burning or react to it much sooner But I love that scene that it it made me laugh out loud and I watch this film by myself Actually, I'm I watch most yellow by myself because not a lot of people want to watch it with me Especially ones like this one. So yeah, but I love that scene There are a lot of panning shots in this film and that's just the director rose I guess he just really liked doing panning shots. Okay. I just something I noticed There are some cool looking shots due to lighting in this and kind of how shadows end up falling I did notice that there is some actual like decent style to the film from time to time Especially like what I'm talking about with that lighting and like shadows, especially there was earlier on in the Grant house where Margaret's walking around and kind of like There was this hallway that had heavy shadows in it, but enough lighting that when she walked through it Just look cool like it looked good Everything seems so random. That is my last thought. I know it's something I already said But it bears repeating things are so random in this film So the question is like, how do you even rate this thing? So I guess I'll do it as like two ways at just like as a film overall and then like a so bad It's good film. So as a film overall, I Mean half a star half a star probably Yeah, but as a like so bad, it's good film two stars I still can't get it too far up there because I don't really want to rewatch it I just want to watch like that one scene of the torch on Mrs. Grant. That's about it God, I love that scene. It's so funny. I just need to like queue that up for some people and just show it to them That's well, although maybe it's just on YouTube just that one little scene. I'll have to look into that We'll find out but anyway, I would love to hear other people's opinions if you've seen this film on this film Put put it down in the comments Also, if you just want to talk about giallo in general go ahead because I'm obviously I'm game to do that with all the reviews I've been putting on my channel But do me a quick favor if you can and it's really painless. It's very fast Hit that subscribe button if you like any video. I've ever done this one or any other one That is your way to repay me. It costs you nothing I'm just doing this to build a nerdy horror community because where I live I can't talk to people in this depth about horror films I certainly can't talk to people around me about giallo because most people people don't even know what the hell giallo is around here And even if I explain it to them their expression says everything which is usually like They don't want to have anything to do with it So yeah, so hit that subscribe button Also hit the notification bell button because then you'll know whenever I'm putting up any new video And I do a bunch of different videos so but regardless I really do thank you for taking your time to watch this I do appreciate that and until next time keep it brutal