Looking for a fresh start after the accidental death of their infant daughter Catherine, architect Dana Barrow (Kate Beckinsale) moves with her husband David (Mel Raido) and 5-year-old son Lucas from Brooklyn to the Blacker estate in rural North Carolina, a once-grand dream home that has sat abandoned and run-down since the death of its original owners in the 19th century. Upon her arrival, Dana begins having unsettling visions and nightmares of a mysterious German Shepherd and of Lucas covered in blood.
While exploring the grounds outside, Dana finds what appears to be a homemade gravestone engraved with the drawing of a kite, when she sees a light turn on in the house’s attic, seemingly of its own accord. Heading upstairs, Dana finds an area of the house not listed in the blueprints, a room whose entrance is blocked off by a large armoire. With David, she manages to push the cabinet out of the way, only to find a locked door. Dana finds the key hidden atop the door frame, and enters the room alone the next day, only for the door to suddenly close and lock of its own accord. Dana experiences a vision of a young girl being tormented by her father and his German Shepherd, and subsequently suffers a nervous breakdown.
Dana eventually makes it out of the room, but is deeply shaken by her experience. She begins to research the history of the house, learning about its namesake Judge Ernest Blacker (Gerald McRaney) and his daughter Laura, who died on the same day as Catherine; July 5th. Dana consults the local historian Judith, who tells her the Blacker family had a secret “disappointments room” in the attic, where wealthy socialite families cruelly shuttered their deformed or disabled children.
As she spends more time researching the house and its history, Dana’s mental state begins to unravel, and she stops taking her medication. She begins having increasingly vivid and disturbing visions of Laura, Judge Blacker, and the dog, and begins acting erratically toward David and Lucas. She finds a portrait of Judge Blacker and Mrs. Blacker hidden behind a pair of facing mirrors, and burns it.
The Disappointments Room is an American horror film directed D. J. Caruso, written by Wentworth Miller, and starring Kate Beckinsale and Lucas Till as a couple in a new house that contains a hidden room with a dark, haunted past. The film was released on September 9, 2016 by Rogue to both critical and commercial failure, grossing only $2 million from a $15 million budget and panning from critics.
The production on the film began on September 8, 2014, in Greensboro, North Carolina. On October 20, Kate Beckinsale, Mel Raido and Michaela Conlin were filmed outside buildings on South Elm Street in Greensboro. The same buildings were used for exteriors, but the interior filming for the scenes represented by those buildings took place on Fourth Street in nearby Winston-Salem. The house used for the main location was the English Tudor style Adamsleigh estate, built in 1930 and designed by Luther Lashmit, at Sedgefield Country Club outside Greensboro.
The Disappointments Room
Directed by: D.J. Caruso
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Michaela Conlin, Marcia DeRousse, Melissa Eastwood, Duncan Joiner, Ella Jones, Michael Landes, Lucas Till, Jennifer Leigh Mann
Screenplay by: Wentworth Miller
Production Design by: Tom Southwell
Cinematography by: Rogier Stoffers
Film Editing by: Vince Filippone
Costume Design by: Marian Toy
Art Direction by: Kevin Hardison
MPAA Rating: R for violent content, bloody images, some sexuality and language.
Studio: Relativity Media
Release Date: September 9, 2016
Visits: 55
