Red Room

The film lacks in everything. No creative direction just basic standing shots with mandioca movements here and there. South African cinema proves that it is not growing at all. Acting is very artificial like I'm watching a play. Story has been done before.

Khanyi Mbau plays a role of a woman who was married to a rich man who happens to commit suicide. At that time, she was pregnant, and then she loses everything. Typical riches to rags storyline. She then encounters a mugger, and somehow a guy who happens to be driving by saves her and allows her to give birth in a "haven" and she ends up living there, since she had nowhere else to go. The guy who saved her, owns the haven and Khanyi's husband was once a client of theirs. The opening act is actually strange because they sit at a dinner table toasting something, but we do not know what and already Khanyi's face seemed to be concerned about something but we do not know what. The film is poorly written because the stakes are not introduced in time thus making the viewers feel like the movie does not care about the audience. The entire movie is a storyboard that they drew with a crayon. There are hints of rape, human trafficking and prostitution which does not add up because even in exposition, they fail to share with the audience what is happening. And because of that, the movie loses direction and the audience does not care to follow. "Cici" also had a short cameo which also meant nothing because her death served no purpose, no storyline and even after she jumped off a balcony, I felt nothing for the character because she was there for only 2 seconds. The "red room" is just a room lit with a red light, where they take these women, drug them up and rape them. The film has no tension, no build up, no stakes, it just jumps from scene to scene with no point of those scenes. Even important pieces are overlooked. 45 minutes in and still the movie has offered nothing, offers nothing and the title of it is shown just to display this room that I could not even fear because the whole film only kept focusing on unnecessary parts that served no purpose. Zero attention to detail, Khanyi had a good wig from start to finish, at some point she becomes a master investigator yet at no point was it ever established that she could be a formidable character. Khanyi narrates a few scenes which also gets annoying because she narrates something that we won't even see, which to me is a sign of lazy writing, if this movie had a script. And then there is the annoying theme music that they kept throwing randomly for no reason. Then the movie jumps to a scene where they auction these women whom they have trapped in the haven... it is so odd because when we first met the women, they seemed like plus size women and then at the auction BOOM slim cuts. Red Room is a film that I am guessing was meant for a bunch of idiots to watch... The movie has copied Taken, Last Blood and Gone Girl. I will give it, half a star.