'Green Room' a well-crafted horror tale of dull characters

The way that Jeremy Saulnier's technically well-crafted horror tale "Green Room" has been marketed, you'd think Patrick Stewart's neo-Nazi entrepreneur would be an iconic boogeyman up there with Leatherface, Hannibal the Cannibal and Jason Voorhees.

As "Princess Bride" star Carey Elwes would say, "Get used to disappointment."

Despite Saulnier's dramatic diligence in drawing out his characters before the obligatory bloodletting begins, there's barely a memorable, horrific or sympathetic character slumming around in any room, green or otherwise.

A metal/punk band called the Ain't Rights is down to its last collective dollar in Oregon when a paying gig opens up at a rural skinhead roadhouse that even Patrick Swayze's Dalton would avoid.

Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Tiger (Callum Turner) and Reece (Joe Cole) barely get through their set when one stumbles into the green room (a waiting room for guests before they go on stage) and discovers a freshly killed woman.

The skinhead minions keep them in the green room while their boss Darby (Stewart) contemplates how to get out of this mess. Far from being a stock maniac killer, Darcy is simply a sociopathic businessman with a PR problem to solve.

He wants the Ain't Rights to come out of the green room and talk. The musicians, along with Imogen Poots as the dead girl's friend, wisely barricade themselves in.

The screenplay fails to trump up a good reason why Darcy can't simply wait them out, setting the stage for a lengthy cat-and-mouse scenario that feels more manipulated than realistic. (Why doesn't the bassist bleed out? Why would Poots remove bullets from her pistol then throw it at a skinhead?)

Saulnier gave us the sharply detailed, offbeat art house thriller "Blue Ruin" in 2013. Here, he replaces complex character motivation with simple survival instincts, and winds up in a room far more red than green.