Director Jeremy Saulnier is surely off the National Rifle Agency’s Christmas card list this year.

Having had an unpleasant family of gun-toting rednecks blown away by their own impressive arsenal in Blue Ruin, now it’s a bunch of neo-Nazis that come a cropper at the wrong end of their firearms.

While he may not be popular with Charlton Heston, Saulnier is one of US filmmaking’s rising stars with this stunning follow-up to his breakthrough hit in which a likeable but struggling punk band are forced to take gig at a club run by and for meatheads who think the KKK have gone soft.

Green Room is a more claustrophobic, thrilling, visceral and tighter plotted tale than the excellent Blue Ruin while continuing to explore the sinister, violent world of US rural life.

Patrick Stewart’s turn as the club’s all-powerful owner will hopefully bring Saulnier’s work to wider attention and he is used brilliantly by the director – for the first ten minutes Stewart is mainly an unseen voice behind a door attempting to reassure the captive band while plotting their downfall.

This taut, adrenaline ride of a film certainly has impact, brutal deaths drew gasps and groans from the audience while one unexpected demise had everyone jumping in their seats.

It leaves a lasting impression.

Five stars