Hurray for the modern age! Its affordable cameras has brought us all closer to realising our dreams of creating that personal cinematic masterpiece… much in the same way that being literate has gifted us all the chance to write that timeless novel. In theory, at least. Not many of us bother.

Our general lethargy or creative-crestfallenness is clearly not shared with Director, Producer, Co-Screenwriter Jim Groom and his merry bunch of independent filmmakers, who’ve spent 11 long, and frequently painful years creating Room 36; a no-stars, no-budget, sets-made-of-cardboard-style British noir thriller with its tongue lodged firmly within its cheek.

Unlike big-selling films like The Blair Witch Project or more recently Paranormal Activity, Room 36′s shoe-string budget isn’t shielded with a convenient plot-device (we’re spared another ‘discovered footage’ fable), instead its lack of funds – and occasional lack of competence – is used to expound the film’s own brand of surrealism – the plot itself revolves around an assassin’s political target being mistaken for a rather hairy and freely-flatulent man’s escort for the evening, in a hotel where the staff listen in on your phone calls, peep through your keyhole and cockroaches the size of a bad-man’s fist scuttle around unreservedly.

After a birthing process so painful it would make Terry Gilliam wince, it’s pleasing that Room 36 might finally get some of the recognition its long suffering filmmakers deserve

Thankfully, Room 36 has enough quirky charm to make the notable inconsistencies work. The excellent feature length ‘making of’ explains how the film ran out of funding early on, as well as experienced several technical mishaps (film processing stores burning down, etc.) and ended up on a hiatus for an impressive 10 years. As such, characters age a decade between scenes, some grow beards after being clean shaven moments ago, and some of the actors, well… died.

Room 36, Jim Groom’s first film after the minor success of ‘Revenge of Billy the Kid’ is an entertaining comedy-noir, with at least one memorable character in the randy if bootylicious Mr. ‘Dick’ Armstrong, as well as some entertaining set-pieces such as the wonderfully inept pub fight sequence, the squalid characters, locations and some pleasingly faithful noir cinematography and score.

After going through a birthing process so painful it would make Terry Gilliam wince, it’s pleasing that Room 36 finally got some of the recognition it deserves by doing a somewhat successful round in the European independent film festival circuit. Plus, the DVD domain is really where the film may really shine, as it boasts an excellent documentary which laments its colourful (or as the case is, colour-less) history, plus it has cult-film splashed all over it like its iridescent helpings of blood.