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Fantasia 2020: ‘The Oak Room’ is a Nuanced, Layered Thriller

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The Oak Room

A guy walks into a bar. What follows is a rural neo-noir that stacks its stories like winning cards on a table, each tale trumping the last. The Oak Room is the latest from the fine folks over at Black Fawn Films, decidedly more of a subdued thriller than their usual horror fare, but it shows a level of maturity and restraint that speaks to the team’s evolving range. Directed by Cody Calahan (Antisocial, Let Her Out) and written by Peter Genoway, The Oak Room is a deep study in storytelling with a hard-hitting finish. 

During a raging snowstorm, a drifter returns home to the blue-collar bar located in the remote Canadian town where he was born. When he offers to settle an old debt with a grizzled bartender by telling him a story, the night’s events quickly spin into a dark tale of mistaken identities, double-crosses and shocking violence.

So, that guy walks into a bar, who tells the story of a guy who walks into a bar, who tells a story — it’s like a barfly’s Inception, with equally dreamlike qualities the deeper you go. Jeff Maher’s cinematography moves with just the right energy, sidling up to the bar in times of casual conversation and drifting through dreamscapes as memories unfold. The camera keeps the flow moving, which is of the utmost importance in a film that focuses mainly on two men talking. Though the characters vary, that’s really the heart of the film; an open dialogue that uses interruptions and sidetracks to play with the pacing. 

The lighting is cold, delicate and precise. The music (by Steph Copeland) prompts the audience, shifting between homespun tunes that feel right at home in their dimly-lit settings and a haunting, moody score that soars over the proceedings, an unknown witness in the events that unfold. Serene, but with a dull edge that keeps you engaged. 

The bar set serves double-duty, but you could never tell. Changes to the set decoration, lighting, layout, and camerawork are distinct in each location. Consistently, Black Fawn’s roster of behind-the-camera talent proves to be impressive; they know how to work together, and they know how to build a cohesive final product. Every element finds the melody and builds a perfect harmony. 

Based on a play of the same name (also written by Genoway), The Oak Room carries a theatrical sensibility in its structure. The dialogue, the pacing, it all feels like it’s being run in one go on a stage. Because essentially, that’s what they did. Running long takes — up to 15 minutes at a time — the actors chew through their lines and keep the pace moving at a consistent clip as they lay it all down. The film was even shot chronologically. It orchestrates tension that ebbs and flows, ever building to the weighted, dramatic climax. 

Peter Outerbridge (Saw VI) and RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad) carry the film with sarcastic banter that we continually circle back to. In the actual Oak Room, Ari Millen (Orphan Black) and Martin Roach (Cube Zero) pull their fair share of the weight with their snarling square-off. Each performance is nuanced, yet open; there’s a lot of tension boiling under the surface of the casual dialogue. 

The main story studies loss and the relationship between father and son. These themes — this unspoken hurt — anchors the film, but it’s easy to get caught up in the spinning yarn. Though there’s a slow build and a fair bit of meandering, each layer of story leads you a bit further down the road, creeping closer to its payoff.

The Oak Room is clever and beautifully made, with engrossing and inventive storytelling that stands out in a bar crowded with cookie-cutter thrillers. If you’re looking for a unique story with creative execution, then settle in and grab a drink.


The Oak Room is playing as part of Fantasia 2020, which has gone digital so you can watch from the safety and comfort of your own home. Check it out next on Monday August 31 at 11:30PM EST.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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