Room 203

Room 203 is a 2022 American horror film directed by Ben Jagger, starring Francesca Xuereb and Viktoria Vinyarska, which centers on two best friends, who have recently moved in together as roommates, and realize that their new apartment is haunted by murderous spirits. Written by John Poliquin, Nick Richey and Jagger, the film is based on the Japanese novel of the same name written by Nanami Kamon and published by Kobunsha.

Jointly produced by American firm AMMO Entertainment and affiliated Japanese company Ammo Inc., the film was released in the United States by Vertical Entertainment on April 15, 2022, with worldwide sales handled by Voltage Pictures.

Premise
When lifelong best friends Kim and Izzy move into a newly rented Gothic-style apartment, excited to begin a new and independent life away from home, and forget about a tragic incident that had interrupted their friendship. But a series of strange and frightening occurrences convinces Kim that the apartment is haunted. With the aid of her new boyfriend Ian, Kim investigates and discovers a terrible curse linked with the Morrigu, an ancient goddess of vengeance, that may doom Izzy to a fate worse than death.

Plot
Kim White is a young woman about to start her college education and has decided to move into a newly rented apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Kim’s parents, however, are not at all supportive of this idea, owing to Izzy’s past history with drugs and cases of overdose, and they warn their daughter that they would not keep any contact with her if she does actually move in. She ignores them and goes inside where she and Izzy meet Ronan, the landlord of the apartment who gives them a tour and tells them to stay out of the basement. Kim and Izzy are mesmerized by a large stained-glass window depicting medieval knights killing each other. Kim also sees a small but noticeable hole on the wall of her room and tries to cover it up by hanging a mirror over it. This does not work, as the mirror either keeps tilting or falls to the ground. Izzy finds an amulet in the hole and begins wearing it, at the same time she begins sleepwalking.

As Kim reaches college late on her orientation day but the tour guide Ian, gives her a private tour. They bond over their shared passion for journalism. Kim decides to write a paper in her course on Izzy's life but doesn't ask permission from her before doing so. One night Kim is woken up by a fluttering noise and sees a crow slither into the hole in her wall, which has now grown and somewhat resembles a decomposing wound. She had also earlier found a heavy metal music box with the names of a couple written inside it, and now, on this very night, Izzy walks into her room holding the music box in her hand, with blood spilling down from her head. Kim takes care of her and keeps her company that night, and Izzy seems to be normal again the next day. Her sleepwalking episodes continue and get even scarier when she walks down into the basement one night and Kim has to bring her back.

Kim had often seen the landlord, Ronan, watching them and behaving strangely. She finds him in their apartment one day staring at the stained glass. He reprimands them harshly for having gone down to the basement. Kim shares all this and also Izzy’s sufferings with Ian, and he suggests she investigate the history of the building. Together they read up on the internet about a bank manager named Liam McNally who had murdered his pregnant wife, Karen, before killing himself in apartment 203. They realize those are the names inscribed inside the music box that Izzy had carried around during her sleepwalking. Kim meets up with Milton Briggs, the janitor who had reported the murder so many years ago, and the man reveals that the baby survived. Ian does his own research into the images present on the stained-glass mural in apartment 203, and he connects them to Celtic pagan symbols and finally to the Irish mythology figure Morrigu, who often appears in the form of a crow and symbolizes death.

Meanwhile, Izzy stumbles across Kim’s paper about her and angrily confronts her before storming out. Kim rips open the hole on the wall, and a shriveled-up, nasty old hand from a dead body falls out of it. Ronan enters the apartment and abducts Kim, revealing that he is the baby that survived, and the amulet Izzy wore belonged to his mother. The curse chooses its victim through the necklace with the cursed amulet, and compels them to kill both others and themself, but Izzy had been successfully resisting, likely due to her resilience from her troubled past. Ronan has decided to take matters into his own hands out of fear that Morrigu will come after him if she does not get her offerings.

Ian meanwhile rushes to Kim’s apartment where he is killed by a possessed Izzy. Kim manages to escape Ronan before finding Ian's body and following Izzy into the basement as she herself is pursued by Ronan. He manages to catch up to her but before he can kill Kim he is possessed and turns the gun on himself. Izzy shifts between her real self, who asks for Kim’s help, and her possessed self, who grins and laughs scarily, and asks Kim to kill her. Kim tries to refuse, and Izzy attacks her, but just as she is about to finish her off, Kim rips off the cursed amulet from Izzy’s neck. The two friends now walk up to their apartment with the intention of breaking down the stained-glass window, but are spooked by hundreds of crows flying right outside their window in an eerie manner. Kim does finally gather up the courage to shatter the window by throwing the dead-body hand that had earlier fallen out of the hole in the wall. The two quickly escape the apartment, and Izzy rushes her friend to the hospital, where she is treated for her physical wounds. Right at the end the camera moves back into the empty apartment 203 and closes in on the hole in the shattered glass window. In pitch darkness, a faint figure of Morrigu herself makes an appearance.

Cast

 * Francesca Xuereb as Kim White, the film's protagonist.
 * Viktoria Vinyarska as Izzy Davis, Kim's best friend.
 * Eric Wiegand as Ian, Kim's boyfriend.
 * Scott Gremillion as Ronan, Kim and Izzy's landlord.
 * Rick LaCour as Milton Briggs, a former janitor.
 * Quinn Nehr as Tony, Izzy's date at a local bar.
 * Sam Coleman as Steve, Tony's friend.
 * Timothy McKinney as Dr. Phillips, Kim's college professor.
 * Patrick and Susan Kirton as Samuel and Ann White, Kim's parents.
 * Terry J. Nelson as Bob, a building contractor.
 * Jeroen Frank Kales as Chad, Bob's construction assistant.
 * Cameron Inman as Lena, Chad's girlfriend.
 * Yuji Ayabe as a delivery man.
 * Bria Fleming as Sandy, a television casting director's assistant.

Production
Development and production of Room 203 took place in 2020, with the film shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, during fall 2020 under COVID-19 safety protocols. The film was financed by Akatsuki Entertainment, an affiliate and predecessor company of AMMO Entertainment and Ammo Inc. Production of the film took 19 days, and filming of the main apartment location took place at The Standard Downtown Lofts, a National Register of Historic Places listed building in Shreveport. Prior to the start of production, members of the film crew discovered human remains in the building, and actress Francesca Xuereb subsequently described experiencing paranormal phenomena during the production. AMMO Entertainment and Ammo Inc. subsequently completed the post-production in early 2021. In June 2021, Voltage Pictures acquired worldwide sales rights for the film, citing the robust market for J-horror-derived projects among international buyers; Voltage subsequently represented the film to buyers at the July 2021 Cannes Film Market.

Release
In October 2021, Vertical Entertainment acquired distribution rights for a limited theatrical, home-video, and video on demand release for the United States. The film was released theatrically and on-demand on April 15, 2022, with the home-video release following on June 21, 2022. In July 2022, Room 203 launched on Hulu, where it debuted in sixth place on Hulu's viewership rankings for the week.

Internationally, Room 203 received theatrical releases in select territories. In Russia, the film opened in the top 10 at the box office, earning $83,048 in its opening weekend. In Lithuania, the film opened in third place with an opening weekend gross of $14,563, and remained in the top 10 for the following month. In Poland, the film opened in fifth place, earning $53,954 in its first week. The film also received theatrical releases in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Latvia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. In total, the film grossed $385,236 in worldwide theatrical revenue.

The film also received home-video releases in select international territories, including Germany and The Netherlands.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 64% based on reviews from 11 critics, with an average rating of 5.10/10.

Writing for Film Threat, Alan Ng praised Room 203 as doing "an excellent job of paying homage to Asian horror" and called the film "just right for avid fans of indie horror flicks." Steve Hutchinson of Tales of Terror highlighted the lead performances of Xuereb and Vinyarska, while describing the film as "a drama sprinkled with horror... a sad and melancholic story, and when it’s scary, it’s terrifying." Nathaniel Muir of AIPT Comics noted "the most prevalent theme is one of friendship... there is a genuineness not often seen in haunted house movies" and said Xuereb and Vinyarska's acting "carries the film." Writing for Assignment X, Abbie Bernstein heralded the "excellent lead performances by Francesca Xuereb and Viktoria Vinyarska," noting "Xuereb has warmth and sincerity, and Vinyarska navigates Izzy’s various moods with skill." Keri O'Shea of Warped Perspective identified Room 203 as being "more interested in relationship-building than generic scares" and summarized the film as "a well-made, often thoughtful, muted take on the [horror] genre." Keith Garlington of Keith at the Movies found the film "more of a mystery movie than straight-up horror" and welcomed its "patient tension-building" and psychological scares as "a gutsy creative choice." In a negative review, Owen Gleiberman of Variety critiqued the film as spending too much time focusing on the real world and lacking sufficient scares.