trashgang Still no proper release this is just one to hunt down for the geeks of Italian horror. It's made in the heydays of the giallo's but I won't say that this is a giallo. There's to much ,so-called, supernatural going on. Once Margaret Bradley (Daniela Giordano) is released from prison and stays at room 2A after her release she's seeing things that aren't for real like for example that's she is locked into a prison. Also strange is that William Rose, the director, made an Italian flick. He was better known for exploitation like Rent-A-Girl (1965). The Girl In Room 2A was the last one he directed. The direction was okay but what a weird editing it had. There were a lot of jumps made by editing towards the story. The flick itself started of rather nasty with a naked girl being impaled with a stick by a hooded killer. Even their the bad editing is shown were suddenly she's killed and next shot she's being thrown from a cliff. It never becomes really bloody it even becomes a bit dull after the opening credits. But still I kept watching what would happen. It's easy to see who the hooded killer is so there isn't that much mystery added to this flick. For the collectors it does have some value due the actors being involved like Brad Harris who went further to Hercules (1983) or our main lead Daniela Giordano who appeared one year later in Inquisicion directed by cult actor Paul Naschy. But most will be disappointed by the short role Rosalba Neri had here in this flick, she appeared in a lot of B-flicks (Lady Frankenstein 1971).Not exactly my cup of tea but somehow I kept watching this dull flick with not that much of blood and some cheesy torturing, of course being Italian, it do has a lot of overdubs and nudity.Gore 1/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 1,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Here maybe is proof positive that nobody understood the sex slasher thriller quite like the Italians. American William Rose wrote & directed this atypical little Giallo production right there in Italy with actual Italians, and while entertaining enough for fans of low budget European made horror it never quite comes alive in spite of some nifty locations and a great cast. Even the usually reliable Berto Pisano's musical is kind of just there, and if nothing else you can almost always count on some decent music when watching Italian genre cinema. Strange.Daniela Giordano plays the young waif recently released from a women's jail for a crime she didn't commit who finds herself wrapped up in a web of intrigue involving a cult of devil worshipers (?) who target girls just like her, all of which ended up staying in room 2a of a boarding house from hell. And all of which either ended up insane or dead after being subjected to some really cruel forms of ceremonial torture that gives the film its reputation amongst connoisseurs of Euro Trash.Giordano is a feast for the eyes just sitting there at a bus stop but the show is stolen by beefy Samson Peplum actor Brad Harris as a big palooka Yankee living in southern Italy for reasons that are never explained. Harris offers the film's hero a beer at one point and you just have to laugh. He and his 6' 3" 275lb buddy Willie from Brooklyn ride around in Harris' little Volkswagen Beetle looking for action, and the film's standout moment for me was seeing these three huge guys spill out of such a tiny car when running to the rescue with the hero in the big climax.Which is surprisingly anti-climactic and involves a literal cliffhanger that has the most inappropriate dramatic music tacked onto it until BLACK EMANUELLE GOES EAST. It's more fun watching Harris & Willie batter down the iron door to the castle, and if anything director Rose missed an opportunity to better contrast this doofus Stan Wojohowitz-like American presence with the Italian culture they seem so out of place in. They are so huge every scene with Harris feels claustrophobic as he squeezes through doors or tries not to demolish the furniture by just leaning on it during conversation scenes.There's some good bits to the film too, like Spaghetti Western actor Frank Latimore as a tortured cult associate driven mad by realizing he literally sold his soul, a welcome nude scene by Ms. Giordano, various torture sequences and a couple of potent gore effects. But when compared to the usual flair of Italian Giallo fare its all pretty artless & matter of fact. Not that there's anything wrong with that mind you, it's just a cheap little Italian B movie, and it's always life affirming seeing Brad Harris take two guys & crack their heads together like a pair of coconuts. Now that's the stuff!5/10

Prof-Hieronymos-Grost Casa della paura, La aka The Girl in Room 2a, (1973) William L. Rose A sadistic cult that preys on vulnerable women, uses a local women's prison as a place to get these unfortunates into their lodging house, where they commence mind games while using hallucinogens to prepare their victims for their fate. Margaret Bradley is one such girl just released penniless from her imprisonment,so she takes up an offer to stay at the Grant's lodging house where she can stay for free until she finds some finance, almost immediately though she becomes suspicious of her hosts strange behaviour and the nocturnal events that keep her awake. She finds a friend in a stranger who is looking into the disappearance of his sister who also stayed at the Grants house, together they commit to finding out the truth.The film starts promisingly with a kidnap and torture of a young girl who is then impaled on a spike by a crimson hooded killer, who does show up on occasion throughout the film, but there is very little in the way of spectacular giallo killings after that, the story kept me interested, but overall its not a Giallo I'd recommend, the visuals are uninspired, the score is at times laughably unsuitable but the biggest crime of all is the under use of Rosalba Neri who is restricted to about 3 minutes screen time, the identity of the Hooded killer is also rather obvious. 5/10

The_Void The Girl in Room 2a doesn't really fit in with a lot of the Giallo films released around their heyday back in the early seventies. The plot, as is the case with many of these films, focuses on murder; but there's very little mystery to it, the cinematography is entirely mundane and the plot just seems to settle as soon as the credits have rolled, which a direct contrast to the sprawling and over complicated story lines that most Giallo's feature. After the opening credits, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you've hit the Giallo jackpot, as we get to watch a screaming young woman skewered with a huge metal spike. From there we watch as her corpse is thrown off a cliff in order to make people believe that she in fact committed suicide. Soon thereafter, a young ex-inmate named Margaret moves into room 2a in a boarding house owned by Mrs Grant, who lives with her weird son Frank. Margaret soon meets a man named Jack, the brother of the girl killed at the start of the film and the two begin investigating the suicide, which he believes has something to do with Mrs Grant's boarding house.Despite being slow, the film is at least interesting for the most part, and American director William L. Rose seems to have some sense of direction where the story is concerned, as it eventually comes to a point that mostly makes sense. The lack of mystery is a major negative point, however, and while I'm not entirely sure whether you are meant to have guessed the identity of the murderers, it's so blindingly obvious that I find it hard to believe you weren't already supposed to know. The cast features just one name, and that belongs to sexy seductress Rosalba Neri...who is unfortunately wasted with a role that is far too small for illustrious persona. The locations didn't impress me much, as the film doesn't feature a lot of variety in this department, and the cinematography isn't exactly awe-inspiring. There are a couple of grisly murders - one of which is the one that happens before the opening credits. The lack of murders wouldn't have been a big problem for me, however, if the film was more exciting. Overall, Girl in Room 2a isn't the worst Giallo you're ever likely to see; but it certainly isn't the best, and I don't recommend going out of your way to find a copy.