La Stanza (alternately translated as The Room or The Guest Room) presents an atmospheric and haunting thriller from first image to credits.  The film opens with the sound of thunder and a tremendous downpour. The first thing seen is a woman silhouetted while standing on the ledge of an open window. She stares out into the rain. The room behind her is dark. She wears a wedding dress as the torrent cascades down in front of her. The image is beautiful, evocative, melancholy and threatening. Her veil and hair are soaked, her makeup has run, leaving her haunted and disconsolate. She’s preparing to jump.

Then the doorbell begins ringing incessantly. She pauses, then moves down from the window, down the stairs and to the door, where a man awaits. He says he arranged through Airbnb to stay for a few days in her guestroom and that he knows her husband. He is charming, mysterious, and seems to know all about her. She relents and says he can stay the night. And that is how director Stefano Lodovichi hooks you.

The opening of La Stanza is a textbook case on how to create a scenario that draws the audience in, making them want to know more. Camilla Filippi gives a brilliant and moving performance as Stella. Guido Caprino gives a performance as Giulio that rivals any actor who has played Bundy or Dahmer. He’s alternately charming and terrifying. When the father of Stella’s child, Sandro (Edoardo Pesce), arrives, the film becomes a disturbing series of revelations about all three characters.

Lodovichi and his performers know how to maintain credibility, tension and suspense. Kudos as well to cinematographer Timoty Aliprandi, who keeps the entire film overcast in every sense of the word. La Stanza is part noir, part thriller, part mystery and more. The entire apartment reads as a haunted house without a ghost but with presences – of loss, of threat, of the unseen son, and the other family. Lodovichi and Aliprandi use long, gliding shots, tight frames on Stella and Giulio, and lighting that ensure the shadows continually creep into the frame (and even if they didn’t, the browns and greys of the apartment make the film feel gothic even during the lighter moments), to build to the slow realization of Giulio’s plan, and the rapid and violent denouement is particularly satisfying.

9 out of 10