This week it was announced that Ben Jagger’s “Room 203” will be getting a limited theatrical and VOD release. The J-Horror malevolent spirit feature will debut in selected cities on April 15, 2022, including New York City (The Kent Theater), Chicago (Emagine Chatham), Ft. Worth, and Dallas (American Cinemas). On the same day, “Room 203” will be available nationwide on all major VOD platforms, including iTunes, Prime Video, DirecTV, Cox, Time Warner, Dish, Vudu, and Google Play.
“Room 203” tells the story of lifelong friends Kim and Izzy who move into room 203, a quirky apartment with a creepy medieval stained glass window, that Kim soon suspects may be haunted. With help from her new boyfriend Ian, Kim investigates the tortured history of the apartment, discovering a string of disappearances of former residents, a murder mystery from half a century ago, and an ancient curse that threatens to possess Izzy and kill Kim.
“Room 203” stars rising talent Francesca Xuereb (“Swipe Night”), Viktoria Vinyarska (“The Real Drakoolvas”), and Eric Wiegand (Hulu’s “Outsiders”). The film is directed by Ben Jagger, who along with John Poliquin, and Nick Richey adapted the screenplay from Nanami Kamon’s Japanese novel.
On stepping into the director’s chair, Jagger shared, “At the emotional core of this story, the characters are dealing with guilt and are trying to find redemption for past and present mistakes that fracture the foundations of friendship, family and love. When I began making this movie, it was always my hope that the audience would be invested by the emotional drama of the story and that the horror would serve as amplification for the conflict that these characters are going through in their daily lives. I grew up on 70’s and 80’s horror movies and there was just something unsettling about the tone and aesthetic of the horror films from those eras. In my experience, every director on their independent project is faced with a plethora of challenges which forces them to become a better filmmaker in the process. Working on Room 203 will always be special to me because of the people who banded together during an uncertain time where the world seemed stuck with no sense of direction, yet we made it happen from our shared love of making movies.”
“Room 203” was produced by Japan’s Ammo Inc. and California-based Ammo Entertainment. Producers are Ammo Entertainment’s Annmarie Sairrino and Ammo Inc.’s Moeko Suzuki, alongside Kat McPhee, Ben Anderson, and Eric Gibson. Babacar Diene and Mashio Takeda served as executive producers and Ty Whittington-Scott co-produced.
