User Reviews

I rarely review anything, but this was so bad I had to warn others. As another review has (thankfully) already done a summary of the film, I'll skip that part. Problem #1: The male character is irritating as hell. He's constantly making ridiculous comments to himself and just really did not give me the sense of the character being freaked out OR nonchalant. He was just... there. Problem #2: The idiocy of his behaviours.. I know, it's a movie, and he's not really thinking straight, but I was getting annoyed by how much nonsensical stuff he was doing to fill time.

Major problem #3: The ending. What? I get the feeling this is some kind of a religious ascension to heaven story, maybe the "averting the eyes" to have the vault door open is something about god.. I don't know. No explanation.

Overall, skip it. Avoid like the plague. An explanation for the entire scenario would have been nice, but if it was a thought-provoking ending the filmmaker was going for, I was so irritated by the film and characters that I honestly didn't care at all about figuring it out, and just chalked it up to being a crappy film.

'Iron Doors' is a low-budget film obviously based on other claustrophobic survival horror movies, but with its own twist.

In general, the plot isn't especially original, but as the movie progresses you will find aspects which haven't been seen in similar films. The originality it has however, isn't quite enough to save the film from the rest of it's flaws.

Let's start with the acting. It's pretty bad. It's not the worst acting you've ever seen, but the performances are definitely nothing special.

The main character is incredibly annoying, unlikeable, and uninteresting. Not only that, but he doesn't even seem to care about the predicament he's in. Almost throughout the entire film he's making ridiculous jokes and comments to himself. Also, he's an idiot. Even after the fourth day in the cell, he still thinks it might be a practical joke. The African woman on the other hand, is at least an interesting character. The language barrier between the two is funny at first, but eventually gets old.

The film leaves WAY to many unanswered questions. Who imprisoned them, and why? Were there any other people besides them? (I'm assuming there were more people because it wouldn't be possible for whoever imprisoned him to anticipate which wall he would try to break out of.) How is the method by which the doors would open explained? The most absurd part would have to be the ending. I can't comment on what that was supposed to mean. I also don't care. I'm usually all for 'interpreting' films like this, but in this case I really just don't care at all.

Despite all of these flaws, I was still interested throughout the whole movie, mainly because I thought a lot of the questions would be answered. It's not just that though. Watching those two try to figure out how to get out, and watching their chemistry despite their language barrier is pretty entertaining. Somehow, I never felt bored watching it. Maybe I'm just a sucker for movies remotely similar to 'Cube' or 'Saw'. Anyway, I'd probably recommend giving it a watch, because while it's certainly not a masterpiece, it is entertaining. And like I said, I really think it's unique in many areas.

This movie wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't 80 minutes long.

Long story short, this is kind of an experiment of two people, a man and a woman, from two different worlds. A french man and an African woman. They get trapped in separate vaults only to find their way to each other sometime in the film. They struggled to survive and they tried their best to escape but to no avail. Towards the end, their libido caused them to make love and Voila! The iron door unlocks itself to paradise.

What's the experiment? Let's call it Project Adam & Eve.

What do they want them to do? Reproduce.

And that's about it. That's all there is to this film. It shouldn't have been longer than 10 minutes in my opinion.

This movie starts out like the "Cube" with one person waking up in a bank vault with steel walls all around him. No idea how he got there or why.

Next to him is a dead rat in various stages of decomposition.

The usual screams for help; threats against those for putting him in there; etc.

He finds a key in a light, which opens a cupboard. Inside is an oxy-acetylene blow torch and some goggles and a hammer and chisel. Neither are effective against the door (esp. when the torch was not used with a blue-flame to cut steel).

He gives up on the door and tries to get through a wall. Eventually he gets through the wall and finds an almost similar setup within, except for a coffin, containing an African woman. They both try to get out of the room and as they try to get out of the 2nd room, the door behind them opens.

Inside is a hole in the floor, much like a grave site. They are close to death and there is not much more opportunity left to escape. As they are digging through the grave to escape, the door behind them opens and it reveals "a forest like expanse, complete with waterfall; birds and animals."

* * *The End * * *

At this point, I couldn't help but wonder what was the story about: - who put them there; - why were they subjected to mental and physical torture to try escape - how were they going to live in this forest area

It didn't satisfy. Hence, the 1-star rating.

There are a few things that need to be said about this movie...

a) Go into it with an open mind and it does have the ability to grab your attention. Don't expect greatness in storyline, acting or even communication.

b) Unfortunately, it doesn't give you a reason to pay attention by the end of the movie!!! I honestly was going to give it a 3 overall... and then the final 30 seconds of the movie occurred and my friend and I were both staring at the screen with the pivotal W T F face (and then the ensuing shouts of various profane remarks about the eighty minutes we just wasted watching it).

Remember how Inception leaves you guessing even when the movie is finished... and you wind up having discussions with friends about those last crucial moments in the movie. This movie has a very, unexpected ending, yet you won't be discussing it with anyone afterward.

Yep. Iron Doors really is an 80 minute pretty well filmed movie about a guy who wakes up to find himself locked in a cement room with a big iron door. He talks to himself and repeatedly uses every curse word known to man before he drinks his own urine out of his shoe and eats some maggots and then talks to himself about drinking urine and eating maggots. Finally he bangs a hole in the wall and finds an African woman in another room with another big iron door. Instead of English, she speaks Zimbabwe or something with German subtitles so our hero continues to talk to himself as he tries to bang another hole in another wall with his bare hands, apparently forgetting that a few scenes back he had a pair of leather gloves. After he drinks his new friend's urine out of his shoe, the two of them sing songs and bang on the wall for about twenty minutes until they figure out that if they don't look at the big iron door and walk backward toward it, it will magically open for them. It does open, and so they find themselves locked in another room with another big iron door. Now they try to dig their way out through the floor but that doesn't work because apparently if this guy doesn't eat in two days he gets so weak he has to crawl around on all fours moaning and groaning, while the woman, who I'm assuming has been trapped just as long as he's been trapped without food or water, has all the energy in the world and uses it to give him some complimentary sexing, after which they don't look at the door and walk backward toward it and it magically opens and they find themselves on another planet. Yep.

So i was told that this movie was a 'good movie' and so i thought to myself 'hey, why not?' seeing as though i love movies like these. After watching it, this movie turned out BEYOND horrible, and I'm usually the type of guy who gives movies like this a chance. The idea of the movie looked good at first but as the movie developed, the idea was completely wrecked by stupid things. As for the acting, i thought the main character was absolutely annoying, and that wrecked the movie for me even more. However, the African woman's acting was at least a little more decent than the guy's, despite the fact she doesn't speak English. So after having spent watching these two people suffer for an hour and a half, we come to the ending, and the ending was too bad to even joke about. Not only do we not find out who put them in there or why they put them in there, but we must deal with not even finding out how the doors 'opened by themselves'; the movie was a complete mess. At first i thought the movie had potential then i just gave up after the first 20 minutes of the movie. Not only does the movie suck, but you get to see a guy drink his urine, scream annoyingly for about 40 minutes, eat maggots, and sing pointless songs. Never once have i cursed so badly at a movie. I felt so used.

DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE.

I don't usually review the really bad movies I watch. I also usually like and seek out movies of this type: someone or someones are trapped in a confined space and don't know why, but in deciding to work together or failing to trust, they determine their own outcomes. It's not hard to do right and when it's inspired it can be incredibly powerful, like late-90's Canadian sci-fi thriller Cube.

Iron Doors gets it wrong. So persistently, constantly wrong, I couldn't let it go without saying a word. It is repeatedly disgusting to no real benefit. The protagonist and the actor playing him lack the necessary depth for the role, and not that much depth was really needed (imagine how much more painful it all could have been if not for the language barrier). The intended mind-blowing finale ("I was NOT expecting that!") was telegraphed by pretty much the whole rest of the movie...

I could go on, but it comes down to this: If you make a dude eat maggots and drink his own urine out of a dirty shoe, the ride better be worth it. This was too gross, too sad, and too punishing to be a worthwhile ride. Even all that could have been forgivable, if it wasn't also so dumb it walled itself off from letting a viewer make an emotional connection with the characters minutes before demanding that same connection. It felt like a "screw the audience" twist, except it wasn't a twist, it was the whole plot.

So much promise in this movie. It looked like one of those gems that you accidentally discover and are excited to watch. You know the ones with the "Best of Berlin Film Festival 2010" or some other cool sounding awards. These awards are always surrounded with the two laurel leaves on the bottom. So you say, "Hey! This thing has a bunch of these darn tooting awards lining the front cover. Matter of fact, it's a veritable forest of laurel leaves up there! Honey, get the weedwacker and let's watch this thing!!!"

I guess it was a very slow year with little competition when they gave those awards out as this movie only deserves one: Biggest Disappointment of Any Movie I Have Ever Watched for Free on Comcast Streampix®.

Looking at the cover and reading the description, one might think it is like the Cube, or Saw or even that indie 2008 Russian movie "Elevator" (find it if you haven't seen it - great flick). But you would be wrong. Iron Doors is a sorely misconceived, poorly acted, very poorly cast, silly, pretentious slog that takes itself far too seriously. At least half the movie consists of one foul-mouthed main character swearing in his German-lite accent about what he is going to do to whomever put him behind these "damned Iron Doors!" Though he is supposedly an "investment banker," he's just as stupid as they come. I'm talking "you are guaranteed to be screaming at your TV" stupid. As an example, he is given a professional-grade two-part welder's torch able to cut through many inches of solid steel. "Great, this movie should be over very soon," you might say. Not so fast. Even though he supposedly puts together $100 million dollar business deals in his spare time, he doesn't understand that a blue flame (one with lots of oxygen from the oxygen tank) is hotter than a yellow flame (too little oxygen). So he tries to cut through the Iron Door with a yellow flame. Of course, it only creates a carbon mark on the door. Duh. I believe the truth behind this is that the cheap-o producers knew that a blue flame would actually cut through their set door so they had to keep the character artificially dumb and have him keep the flame yellow. OK, fine. BUT . . . within a few minutes, he finally figures out how to get a blue flame and is slicing through steel rebar like it's margarine. Let's see now. Blue flame + steel rebar = cut rebar. So if I go back to the steel door with the blue flame it will easily cut through . . . FREEDOM!" Sorry folks. That takes an intelligent character and professional writing. Only amateurs here. HE NEVER GOES BACK TO CUT THE IRON DOOR! Really? I could go on and on with this character's abject stupidity and doing things that no person in the history of mankind would ever do.

Poorly conceived, poorly written, no back story, no connection or empathy to actor, no character development, poor understanding of the most basic tenets of the Christian faith (along with heaven, hell and sin) that it is supposedly based on.

Don't waste your time. Watch Cube, Saw, Elevator (2008) or almost any other movie for more entertainment.

I went into 'Iron Doors' with no expectations whatsoever. Aside from reading a blip on a review site about how this film was actually sort of interesting. I tend to agree with at least half of the reviews on the site, so I figured I would give it a go. I'm also a sucker for Cube, and it sounded like it would be in the same realm.

You all know the story, so I'm not going to repeat it or spoil it. Iron Doors, is about a dude stuck in a room with an iron door. This turns into multiple rooms with iron doors and the main character trying to figure out how to get the heck out of dodge.

He goes through everything I expected he would go through *aka: drinking urine, eating maggots, etc*. You do what you got to do to survive. This escalates to him finding a key in a lamp, to opening a locker, to finding a blowtorch and a chisel. He eventually gets into another room (by chiseling his way through a wall)and meets an African American lady who speaks German or Zimbabwe or such. I eventually got the point though...the director is trying to tell us something morally. These two characters eventually get together based off of survival. It doesn't matter if they are black/white...speak English or another language...they have a connection now.

They both recognize it and end up having sex as the main character is basically on his death bed. Then...after she hydrates him with her tears..they figure out a trick about the iron doors, finally...and they keep moving through more rooms. I don't want to go past the explanation of the actual plot here, but there is an ending. It was foreshadowed...and it actually makes sense if you think about it. I was pretty much expecting it and that's why the rating got dragged down to a 7. I'm much more kind to indie films because they are usually doing something different. I don't want to watch Fast & the Furious 64, and if you are the same as me, you will enjoy this treat. Just don't go expecting The Prestige, and you will come out pleasantly surprised.

Okay .. so we got a variation on the Cube .. guy in a room .. breaks into another room .. now we have guy and girl .. on the brink of dehydration and death .. vault door opens .. and ..

"Toto. We're not in Kansas anymore."

Obviously they are no longer on earth .. but these two have ear to ear grins like they just reached paradise.

The end.

Senseless movie. Why 2 stars? Only because the cinematography and acting was good. (Although the new scene they enter into at the end looks like a back lot paint job with animation added.) I think the only reason for this movie was for a tax write off. It should never have been shown .. but then perhaps the tax code requires that.

This film was not as terrible as some reviews make out and is well worth 80 odd minutes of your life. It was never going to win an Oscar but then neither are thousands of other far less worthy pieces. You know by now the plot from other reviews so you also know it's a story of symbolism. I love mysteries and that's what keeps you watching. The quality (acting, script, filming making) is strong enough to keep you wanting to know what's the out come. I've seen enough films that provide NO ending at all or the very obvious one where the character just dies as he would in reality. That would have left me annoyed!!. Just a couple points I would have liked a clearer explanation of though. I know it had a meaning, but the not looking and backing up to the doors to open them???? And another point no one mentioned. How did he get on top of the cabinet and WHY? Thinking about it, one area for improvement would have been a tighter, more realistic script. Some points are just not right and would not have taken much to put right. For example he's far more likely to have tipped over the cupboard than go to the bother of climbing on top, and would he really have started drinking urine after just a day. I know I wouldn't. Anyway, a little improvement and an OK movie.

IRON DOORS is a low budget film that is clearly based in movies like SAW or CUBE. In fact it really follows their concept but it also provides some new and interesting ideas which I appreciated, I must say! The plot is very straight to follow as it begins with a man closed in a room, waking up and not knowing how he got there… So far nothing new, we all have seen it in CUBE! Anyway, at first he thinks it's just a joke from his friends, but soon he realizes it's not a joke! The novelties in the plot start when he can make a large hole in the wall and pass to another room! There he finds a black woman that is in the same situation than him, but she just… can't speak English! The movie turns funnier with this character. They make a nice couple! The plot doesn't develop a lot more until the end, where it has a nice disclosure! I appreciated this movie. It's not too original but it ends being entertaining. Score it 6/10.

I believe this film is for those people that understand it takes time and hard work to establish moral fiber.

!!!SPOILER!!!

Classification: Thriller/Sci-Fi

Short Answer: Very little CG, interesting plot, not for those people that need to be entertained every second of the film with 'Flashy Action'. This one makes you think...

Long Answer: If the Iron Doors would have opened without any effort, how long do you think the guy would have lasted in the wild? He sure wouldn't have gone after the female because it would have been too much work to get through the wall. He had to learn to be resourceful after giving up hope on several occasions. Early in the film he proved he was spineless so he needed to break out of his shell of luxury, and re-mold himself into a stronger person mentally. The everyday human and the survival human are two different beasts entirely, this was a well displayed principle. Once he figured out that there was another way, he worked for it and did what he had to do to survive. At one point he made a comment about Aliens, just as a joke to himself in his monologue; this was a great example of foreshadowing... Interesting take on terraforming with the Adam and Eve aspect. The main thing that made the two of them unite was the fact that they both understood one common goal, survival. The language barrier was necessary to build a bond between them. This film takes the essence of their human nature, shreds it, and proves they are selfish animals with moral boundaries when presented with life threatening situations. They did what was right, even when their backs were against the wall especially when all hope seemed to be lost. The doors were to prove that in order to succeed, sometimes you need to have blind faith, hence no looking at the doors. I could go on for a while about this, interesting film. Think about it afterward for a while before posting a poor review... This one is art. This is an interesting theory. Thank you Stephen Manuel!

A man (Axel Wedekind) wakes up imprisoned in a cell with a big iron door. There is a set of locked lockers, a light, and a dead rat. He struggles to get out, forced to drink his own urine and eat maggots to survive. He meets a African woman (Rungano Hyoni) who does not speak English.

The film reminded me of a low budget "Cube" without the booby traps. The question of why they are there is semi-answered at the end, i.e. you get a visual explanation you need to interpret. The acting was fine, but I would of liked to have seen less lamenting and more action, i.e. solving clues, breaking through walls etc.

A film for those who would visually want to combine "Buried" with "Cube." Once you get to the end, you realize that the film can be watched on a different level. Those who are capable of grasping the "smartness" of the film would rate it higher than those that don't get it.

Parental Guidance: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Rungano Hyoni)

****TOTAL SPOILER**** But I'm saving you 90 minutes of your life that you can never get back.......

Garbage......director talks about "pulling the rug out from under our feet" with unexpected twists and turns. There are no turns...there are no twists.....not one.....

It's 90 minutes of waiting for something to happen.....then the waiting ends.....along with the movie.

It's not "artsy"....it's not "original".....it's "higher meaning" doesn't escape me....it's simply not there.

You're hour and a half would be better spent playing "Mad-Lib", and you have a good chance of ending up with a better plot.

Movie goes like this.....Guy stuck in room......guy and girl stuck in 2 rooms.........guy and girl stuck in 3 rooms....guy and girl outside....the end. Watch this movie in a short bus wearing a helmet, it will feel more appropriate.

To each their own of course, but I've seen a lot of these types of movies, (of which I endearingly call, "2-4 Idiots Trapped in a Room Trying Not to Die" films), and this one did not go in the predictable route. The actors also had really great chemistry, and I mean that, even before the sex scene. I also liked the way that the film was shot with just enough interesting angles but not so many that it gives me motion sickness, (and no shaky or spinning camera effect; praise the mighty gods! XD).

That said, here's my take on the sex scene/why they had sex; if I were in a situation where I were in serious danger of dying, and were going through this with another person, I would probably grow to care a great deal about them, especially by the end as we both lay dying. If that other person happened to be someone that I found to be attractive and who also found me attractive in return, and we both seriously felt that there was no hope of surviving, I could see the romanticism in wanting to go out together in a blast of final excreted energy. Though, I felt like it went deeper than that, and I think this is why I enjoyed this one so much.

It's like how soldiers who were in combat together become brothers/sisters, or how survivors of horrible abuse or natural disasters often cling together for many years after, (if not life), because they're the only ones in the world that will ever fully and personally understand what the other has been through. It's hard to explain the love you feel for someone when they've held your hand and walked through hell with you.

As for the ending, I immediately thought, "Wow, it's like exactly what the Disney-loving inner child in me wanted for them after all they've been through!", but couldn't help but notice how purposely surreal it looked, as if something out of a dream...or something out of the series of hallucinations that the brain processes as it dies due to all the chemical stuff the brain does when you die, (unless you go by instant death, which is rare).

The guy was so exhausted and starved of everything by the end that he was crawling and barely able to make it back to the lady when he ripped out the lining of that coffin to cover her with, (that part pulled my heartstrings; sorry, it just did, okay?! :P ). I figure that he died shortly after that, and the ending was a dying vision in his mind as he passed. The lady may or may not have died at the same time.

Maybe she was really with him in the vision because she had died, too, but it seemed to me that she had another day or so before she was going to die of starvation and thirst. They'll never know who did it to them or why; that's the harsh reality of many victims of serial killers, as much as it sucks.

Again, feel free of disagree or even rip my review apart; I won't take it personally that we didn't like the same movie, haha. :)

**SPOILER**

I understand that there is symbolism in the movie. I understand the guy and girl may be dead or purgatory. How they act in the vault, decides they're fate. I would even venture a guess and say, the whole movie was about him. And she was just one more item/part/thing in the vault for him to interact with, in deciding his fate.

In fact, I don't know if every version of this movie has her subtitles in German instead of in English. So I got my tablet and translated her subtitles from German to English. No body who posted a message referred to her limited back story. But she was going to a wedding. She doesn't know why she's there. Doesn't know the guy. She's religious. She says she always does what shes told. She asks if G*d wants her dead. Asks why is she being punished. She refers to her mother being disappointed. While the guy's sounds like a jerk, and with no faith. So she has no reason to be there unless she's dead, and there to help him reform.

The part that puzzles me is the items in the vault. He has a dead rat, a hidden key, and a locked locker with a welding torch and tools. Symbolically speaking, the key comes from the light. He has a blue collar speech pattern and has a locker and tools.

She is in the dark, inside a coffin. The lamp in her vault is very decorative. Her lights can be turned on and off, but his can't. Lamps light their way?

The third vault has a grave with a fallen chandelier, and a red/orange grave stone. I don't understand the need for the items in this vault. Maybe they symbolize their ending. It's time to decide their fate? Why a red/orange grave stone? Why a fallen chandelier? Does the glass beads and light represent heaven, and the worm in the grave represent death?

Why did she have sex? Was she a virgin and her wedding was hers? Did she want him out of his funk? He broke down and started to cry. She tried to talk him out of it. Then slapped him. Then kicked him. She finally pulled him out of the grave. He was thirsty, so she gave him her tears. He had no will to continue, so she had sex with him so he'd feel alive again?

My question is, are the items in each vault symbols that tell a story, why he was there? The key for the locker came from the overhead light fixture... why? Does light symbolize hope for him? If the items have a purpose, does that mean he should have checked each vault for items to use for his escape. Except for the items in his vault, the coffin, and the girl, he ignored every item. The items in his vault are industrial. The items in her vault were somber. The older artistic coffin. The older artistic lamp. And the over the head lamp with a cord, if you want light or not. The third vault had the grave and the chandelier.

My biggest question is... what was in the 4rth vault. Is there a 4rth vault? If the vaults are square rooms. And he travels to the other vaults that share walls with his vault. And when the door opens and they see outside, the vault door opens wide and stops on a side wall. Doesn't that hint to a 4rth vault?

Personally, once the key falls from the lamp, which he uses to get tools. I would have used my imagination and taken a better look at the other items.

I love the movie but... My biggest criticism of the movie is that the guy ignores allot, and that's why people may rate this movie low. It's like a mystery story, the author shows every clue to the reader/viewer, so they can better understand why the villain is the villain. It's also entertaining for the audience to try to solve the mystery before the story detective figure it out. In this movie, it feels like there is so much clues/symbolism that are ignored or unexplained. In a good story, the main character is like the mouse on a computer screen. The audience/reader can't interact with the story/characters/clues, but we get to explore them when the main character interacts with his environment. The guy in this story just ignores allot.