Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders Blu-ray Movie Review

Where to now, St. Peter?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 25, 2019

If you have a history as a junkie, with a long and well reported history of drug use and/or abuse, it probably shouldn’t come as a big surprise if, when you’re found dead curled up in a fetal position on the floor of a disheveled hotel room, the police decide pretty much on the spot you expired from an overdose. That’s the fate that awaited Johnny Thunders (Leo B. Ramsey), a guitarist and singer who is probably best remembered for his stint with the New York Dolls. Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders attempts to address some of the questions that still linger surrounding the demise of Thunders, a guy who was attempting to wean himself off of methadone (after having attempted to wean himself off of heroin, one assumes) as he checks into a New Orleans hotel called the St. Peter House (foreshadowing, anyone? — albeit in this case, based on the actual facts). With a subplot that includes a perhaps unexpected “trip” courtesy of LSD, Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders kind of weirdly echoes at least some elements of both dramatic explorations of the deaths of various rock or other show business icons, while also kind of refracting the same quasi-Faustian ambience that informed the similarly New Orleans set Angel Heart.

Thunders is perhaps the very definition of a cult item, and as such even the wildly speculative (and at times outlandish) "hypotheses" surrounding what at least contributed to his death in this film may well appeal to some. But my hunch is the general populace is not going to have heard about Thunders (or at least not heard much about him), so that the details surrounding his demise won't have any particular interest. When that's combined with what turns out to be a kind of demonic magical realism courtesy of hallucinatory elements arguably untethers this film from reality so much that even the hypotheses themselves seem ephemeral. Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders at least gives a troubling, claustrophobic account of the miseries suffered by an addict in the throes of some kind of withdrawal.

Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and Cleopatra Entertainment with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Cleopatra may continue to cause a fair degree of head scratching among high definition aficionados due to their reliance on an older compression codec as well as their continued lack of lossless audio. What's kind of especially strange about this release is that some elements of this disc (including the Menus) have been compressed via the more "traditional" AVC codec. The venerableness of the codec aside, this is often a rather striking looking presentation, with generally excellent sharpness and some good detail and fine detail levels. A lot of the imagery has been tweaked, with both grading and things like intentional distressing entering the fray for some of the more psychedelic aspects. Detail levels are understandably variable in some of these moments. There are some isolated moments of banding noticeable, typically in fadeouts.

Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This is another Cleopatra Blu-ray release with only Dolby Digital audio (there's no Audio menu, but there are two tracks, 5.1 and 2.0, accessible via the Audio toggle button on your remote). The surround track does a nice job of providing good ambient environmental detail in what may or may not be a haunted hotel, as well as offering good support for the musical elements. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. I'll only repeat my by now well worn opinion that lossless audio is always preferable, and is perhaps especially preferable for a release like this which includes so much music.

Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Slideshow (1080i; 2:30)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:07)


• Trailers for other Cleopatra Entertainment releases, including a real life Johnny Thunders concert, are also included.

Additionally, a Bonus CD of the film's soundtrack is included in the package, and may be the supplement most fans will enjoy.

Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In doing some background research in preparation for writing this review, I came across what looks like at least a couple of documentaries about Thunders, and I had to wonder if this film might have worked better had it gone one of two directions — either a more factual accounting of what is known and unknown about Thunders' death, or a completely gonzo depiction that frankly didn't even need to be tied to Thunders at all, and might have indulged in a kind of debauched Naked Lunch kind of ambience. As such, this film struck me as inherently exploitative, not really answering any "mystery" and instead mixing "fact" (or whatever passes as such in contemporary films) with pure, often hallucinatory, speculation that makes this a rather odd almost horror film at times. Thunders fans may want to check this out as at least some kind of weird diversion, though technical merits on this disc could have been better optimized.