DVD Review: The Girl In Room 2A

DVD Reviews, Film, Reviews

I’ve seen some disturbing ’70s Italian horror films in my time. (I’m looking at you Cannibal Holocaust!) So when I had the opportunity to watch this I was a little nervous as to what I was getting myself into. However compared to some of the films I’ve seen, this film was pretty tame.

The Girl in Room 2A opens with its most disturbing moment. A woman leaving her house is attacked and drugged by a stranger in a red mask. Next we see her naked, tied up and dangling by her hands. A blade comes out of a wall and stabs her over and over as she screams. All during this the opening credits float by. Finally the masked man unties her, spins her around and thrust her into the protruding blade killing her. At this point I was really worried about what I was getting myself into. But like I said, this is the worst moment in the film.

Next we are introduced to our main character, Margaret (Daniela Giordano). She has just been released from prison after she was mistakenly arrested when blamed for bringing drugs to a party. She finds herself an apartment run by an odd woman named Mrs. Grant (Giovanna Galletti) where strange things begin to happen. She sees the masked man and a puddle of blood keeps appearing on her floor are just two of the strange things happening to her.

Soon she meets Jack (Jogn Scanlon) a young man who is looking for his sister who disappeared. They both realize that his sisters disappearance and the strange things happening in the apartment building are connected and they begin working together to solve the mystery.

It turns out the masked man is part of a strange cult that believes the only way to deal with evil is on its own terms. There are several long philosophical conversations on this subject, and these are actually kind of interesting. In fact they prove to be the best part of the film.

If you’ve seen any ’70s Italian horror films you know how this film is going to move and look. It plods along slowly taking it’s time as it doesn’t really have that far to go to get to it’s inevitable conclusion. The dialog is dubbed in English and is pretty horrendous. You can also watch the film in the original Italian with subtitles, but the acting isn’t much better there. There are a couple of interesting moments cinematically, but these are few and far between.

If you’re looking for a blood slasher flick, The Girl In Room 2A probably isn’t the movie for you. It’s got a couple disturbing moments; the big one at the beginning and some minor ones at the end. This film is pretty much for hardcore Italian horror buffs only.

The film is presented in 1.66:1 widescreen and 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo. This is a brand new transfer of the film and it looks pretty damn good for a ’70s horror film. This is the first time the uncut version has been released in the US so there are sections of the film that have Italian subtitles because they were never dubbed before.

Interview with Daniela Giordano: (11 min.) The star of the film talks about her film career and briefly mentions 2A. US Theatrical Trailer and you get some text About the Film and about the Cast and Crew.

Going into this I though it was going to be some “godfather of torture porn” kind of movie. And while the first scene made it seem like it was going to be just that, it had nothing else to offer for such a grand statement. This actually made me like the film more being that I hate torture porn, but this film was still nothing much to write home about.

Mondo Macabro presents The Girl In Room 2A. Written by: Gianfranco Baldenello. Directed by: William Rose. Starring: Daniela Giordano, John Scanlon and Giovanna Galletti. Running time: 85 min. Rating: Not Rated but contains scenes of extreme violence, nudity and sex. Released on DVD: March, 27 2012. Originally Released in 1974. Available at Amazon.com.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years