Four Rooms



Four Rooms is a 1995 Black Comedy Round Robin Anthology film consisting of four segments. Ted is a young (and rather loopy) bellhop working at a once famous Los Angeles hotel that has fallen from grace and become a haven for criminals and creeps. On New Years Eve, he ends up with an interesting set of clientèle as the only employee on staff. Hilarity Ensues.

Honeymoon Suite - The Missing Ingredient

A coven of witches gather for a ceremony to resurrect their petrified goddess. Four of them brought their ingredients, but the fifth failed to bring hers; semen. When Ted shows up, he happens to be the closest male available.

Written and directed by Allison Anders.

Room 404 - The Wrong Man

After some drunk people at an Ambiguously Gay disco party ask for ice and screw up their room number, Ted ends up entering the room of a man holding his Bound and Gagged wife at gunpoint. Mistaking him for someone else, he gets forced to partake in a particularly odd S&M game because the man has a "big fucking gun".

Written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell

Room 309 - The Misbehavers

A Mexican gangster and his wife decide to leave their kids at the room for the night while they go to a party. Rather than call a babysitter, they pay Ted five hundred dollars to tend to them and make sure they don't misbehave. Finagles Law immediately takes hold.

Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Penthouse - The Man From Hollywood

After a brief phone call to his boss to be let off for the night, Ted ends up making one last stop. Chester Rush is a famous director (played by Quentin Tarantino) holding a private party with some of his buddies from the business. After seeing an old episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents where a man bets his little finger he can start a lighter ten times in a row, they decide to replicate it. Ted is asked to be the hatchet man.

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

This film provides examples of:
"Betty: [finally getting on the phone] Ted? What's the problem?
 * Adam Westing: Antonio Banderas plays a parody of his usual Mexican Badass role.
 * Anachronic Order: The Wrong Man occurs during the Time Skip in The Misbehavers.
 * Animated Credits Opening
 * Berserk Button: Don't call Ted "Theodore".
 * And don't call that whore a whore!
 * Cluster F Bomb: Especially in The Man From Hollywood. But hey, it is directed by Tarantino.
 * Crying Wolf: The reason Ted doesn't believe the kids when they call him to report an actual emergency.
 * Depending On the Writer: Ted's characterization changes quite a bit between segments.
 * Enfant Terrible: The two kids in The Misbehavers.
 * Hey Its That Guy: Kathy Griffin has one scene as Betty, the woman who was supposed to be assisting Ted, while Marisa Tomei plays her crack-smoking friend.
 * How Unscientific: Evoked by The Missing Ingredient, which includes what is definitely magic in an otherwise realistic film.
 * Humiliation Conga: After "The Misbehavers", Ted calls up his co-worker Betty to bring her up to speed (first having a conversation with her equally "loopy" roommate).

Ted: [eerily calm] Hello Betty. "What's the problem?" I haven't got a problem. I've got fucking problems. Plural. Wanna hear?

Betty: [disinterested] Sure.

Ted: [remaining calm] Well most recently, there's Room 309. There's this scary Mexican gangster dude poking his finger in my chest. There's his hooligan kids snapping their fingers at me. There's the putrid rotting corpse of a dead whore inside the mattress. There's a big fat needle, from God knows where, stuck in my leg, infecting me with God knows what. There's rooms blazing afire. And then there's me. Walking out the door. Right fucking now. Buenos noches!"


 * Hurricane of Euphemisms: The Wrong Man has a whole lot of penis nicknames.
 * Large Ham: Quentin Tarantino.
 * New Year Has Come
 * Nightmare Fuel: Unknowingly sleeping inches above a decaying corpse.
 * Oner: A several minute long shot opens The Man From Hollywood.
 * Sex As Rite-Of-Passage: One of the rare female examples in The Missing Ingredient.
 * Shout Out: The aforementioned episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which in turn was an adaptation of a Roald Dahl story.
 * Signature Style: Each short is meant to communicate their writer/director's talents. Odds are very good one is not watching the film for the first two directors, though.
 * The Cameo: Bruce Willis refused money (and creditation) for his role in "The Man From Hollywood" as a Thank You to Tarantino for casting him in Pulp Fiction.
 * Tranquil Fury: Ted when describing the events of the night to Betty. See the Humiliation Conga example.
 * Understatement: At the end of The Misbehavers, the father asks if his children misbehaved as all hell breaks loose in the room.
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When investigating a smell coming from Room 309, the little girl removes the mattress to discover the "putrid rotting corpse of a dead whore." Ted then does his best Regan Macneil impression.
 * Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: The party on the fifth floor appears to be like one of these.