Late Sci-Fi Icon Patrick Stewart Did Something Totally Unexpected In This A24 Horror Movie

The late Sir Patrick Stewart delivered iconic roles from Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) to Professor X in X-Men (2000). However, he's also appeared in countless other plays, films, and television shows that showcase his immense range. Yet, the one genre no one would've ever suspected him to succeed in was horror because Stewart usually plays the good guy.

A24's Green Room (2015) is an intense story of survival where Stewart not only plays a conniving villain, but he is also incredibly frightening while playing to his strengths as an anchor. As a result, the Shakespearean actor known for his powerful deliveries scared the living heck out of Green Room audiences.

'Green Room' Is a Horror Movie With Real Monsters

Green Room is about a punk band that picks up a gig in the Pacific Northwest. Shortly after, they not only witness a murder they shouldn't have seen, but they also realize the gig was for a neo-Nazis gang. Trapped in the green room and trying to plan an escape, the gang's leader, Darcy Banker (Stewart), essentially waits them out with unnerving patience.

It doesn't feel like a typical horror movie because, even without monsters in the traditional sense, Green Room isn't about slashers or a dark crime mystery. This is a story about awful people terrorizing innocents because they saw too much. The horror comes in the framing and performances, not to mention the very real stakes that come with it.

Green Room calls back to films like Panic Room (2002), in which the real horror is the humans and their capacity for cruelty. Still, what truly makes Green Room stand out is its performances and the fact that Patrick Stewart does something totally different from what fans expected from him. Put that together, and what should be an easily predictable plot suddenly gets you hooked because you don't know what is coming next.

Stewart Gave Us His Scariest Performance in 'Green Room'

We all know Stewart's performances to be either powerful or gentle, and sometimes both, depending on the project. He's always been a safe-space actor where we know he's the one we can trust the most because he never actually tries to hurt anyone. However, Green Room throws all of that out the window with his performances as Banker.

Banker is not only the leader of the neo-Nazis group, but he's also running a drug lab in the forest, and the band he is trying to kill threatens the entire operation. He doesn't see them as humans; he sees them as pests that need to be exterminated, and that alone makes him a different breed of monster.

Banker is clever and shows decades of experience in what he's doing. He's only kind to you if you don't cross him, but he will never trust you. When it comes to disposing of bodies, he's also seasoned at that, and anything else would rarely stop him aside from equally matched intelligence and aggression.

It's Stewart who sells all of this because he's playing to his strength as a calm and collected actor, sure of every word he says, but channels it to work against people rather than for them. It's like if Professor X suddenly became a villain who was even more brutal than Magneto, and that alone barely scratches the surface of who Darcy Banker is.

'Green Room' is a Must-Watch Horror Movie

Green Room is a powerful horror film because it showcases how horror doesn't always have to be about monsters and masks. Sometimes reality is scary enough, and bad situations getting worse is enough to turn your knuckles white. While we root for our survivors to get revenge and get out of there, we are also drawn in by Stewart's performance.

Anyone who has seen this film mentions how out of the actor's wheelhouse this role is, and yet it's also one of their favorite Stewart performances for the very same reason. Sometimes being typecast in a certain role is a blessing because when you can show other sides of your craft, it shocks and surprises. In Stewart's case, this was exactly what he needed because while he will always be a kindhearted sci-fi icon, horror fans needed something a little darker to latch on to.