Butterflies are so delicate, yet so strong to endure their long migrations around the world. In the Butterfly Room, the story hinges on Ann (Barbara Steele) who is a strong, elegant, reclusive and centers her life around her butterfly collection. She captures and mounts them in her "butterfly room". During her days, she has flashbacks to her daughter and all the while she befriends a little girl to fill her empty nest syndrome. The Butterfly Room is a spooky tale where all is not what it seems. This psychological thriller keeps you glued to a shifting dynamics of this gentile collector. It is sure to make you think twice the next time you see a flawless butterfly.

I was walking by a small cinema in NY and stumbled upon the Butterfly Room and am glad I did.Barbara Steele steals the show as the lead actress; excellent cast overall (with extensive horror film history). The movie leaves the audience in suspense with every creepy twist and turn. The Butterfly Room movie keeps you on the edge of your seat as the plot slowly unravels.Top notch cinematography. Warning: This movie may cause nightmares!Grab your friends and some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the ride in this one of a kind thriller! Highly suggested!

First I have to say Barbara Steele looks great to be as old as she is. She does a good job with her role. The movie itself is original, and different , and interesting enough to make you want to see how it ends. Worth seeing once.Now the direction.... first as a writer JZ has good ideas but his writing is not very good. Might have been a better movie had he let someone else write the story based on his novel and ideas.I liked some elements, like the girl Alice picking up older women and them paying her to spend time with them.Had a top notch director and a good writer done this movie it could have been quite good.the main character /villain being a woman who loved young girls, but was a horrible mother to her own daughter. she is also a sociopath, no remorse , and can kill with no remorse. she seemed to not like men at all.the characters are all a little unrealistic, but at same time realistic.The movie itself is confusing with the silly flashbacks, but the basic story is Ann wants to have her daughter back, or better yet to have another daughter, as long as she doesn't have to have a baby herself. the big surprise is what happens to Alice the smart girl who leases out her companionship. **spoilers below***Alice winds up like the butterfly's. the other young girl Julie is the one who sort of solves the mystery, and is Ann's undoing. Ironically Ann saves her at the end from being hit by a car, even though she was trying to kill her.So overall I gave it a 6 due to being different and somewhat original. I will add the acting is good so the direction was good from that standpoint. The main problem was the story wasn't quite right, and need to not have the flashbacks.

As soon as it got listed in the official program of the 30th annual Belgian Festival of Fantastic Films, I've been eagerly anticipating to see "The Butterfly Room". For obvious reasons, I presume, namely the return of horror diva Barbara Steele – the legendary beautiful and hypnotizing lead actress of such Gothic horror milestones as "Black Sunday", "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "Castle of Blood". The casting of Steele is the undeniable highlight, of course, but writer/director Jonathan Zarantonello's whole incentive of making a thriller solely revolving on female protagonists is enormously respectable and, in fact, quite innovative as the horror genre still somewhat remains a masculine world where women are often degraded to inferior roles. Apart from Barbara Steele, Zarantonello managed to gather the dignified horror ladies Erica Leerhsen ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), Camille Keaton ("I Spit on your Grave"), Adrienne King ("Friday the 13th), PJ Soles ("Halloween") and Heather Langenkamp ("Nightmare on Elm Street"). To defend the honor of the male sex, there's also Ray Wise ("Twin Peaks"). I easily daresay this is the most remarkable and jaw-dropping ensemble horror cast since many years! The plot itself also contains great thriller potential and a worthy amount of isolated moments of greatness, but sadly I have to admit that the wholesome is too often tedious and never appears to find a stable pacing. Steele is splendid as the aging but nevertheless still very stylish and fashionable Ann, a lonely woman who reverts to her hobby of collecting butterflies and exhibiting them in a sober room where only she's allowed to enter. Ann is always eager to babysit her neighbor's young daughter and she also takes obsessive custody of a girl she met at the shopping mall, because her motherly instincts remain unanswered. But Ann's caring personality also has a grim dark side that gradually comes to the surface. "The Butterfly Room" is 100% American produced, but the atmosphere feels totally European, more particularly reminiscent of those typically lurid Italian gialli and psychedelic dramas. The roots of director Zarantonello and the decades of Barbara Steele's horror experience are clearly detectable. Despite the brooding atmosphere throughout, the vast majority of the film is regrettably tame, but luckily this gets compensated with a neatly unsettling and grisly denouement. Beautiful imagery and tasteful photography complete this worthwhile effort that particularly comes recommended to admirers of strong feminine horror ladies and nostalgia.