The big picture

• CM Punk is just one of many wrestlers who became actors, along with John Cena, Dwayne Johnson and Dave Bautista.
• The girl on the third floor
  explores themes such as trauma and sexual abuse in the setting of a haunted house.
• Although the film borrows elements from other horror films, it still offers first-class special effects and shock moments.

Professional wrestling is currently more popular than ever, and that is mainly because CM Punk‘s return to WWE. Punk (real name Phil Brooks) left the company in 2014 and retired from wrestling entirely until his surprise return to AEW in 2021. After two years there, he shocked the world again by returning to WWE, where he is now a fan favorite. What fans love most about CM Punk is his promo skills. He is a master on the mic like no other, so it should come as no surprise that in 2019, while taking a break from wrestling, he decided to use his acting skills in the ring and try his hand at films. The girl on the third floorDirector and co-author Travis Stevens in his feature film debut, is also Punk’s feature film debut. The end result is a haunted house horror film that isn’t always a smash hit, but is still worth watching whether you love wrestling, scary movies, or gross special effects.. But they are the themes that will stay with you long after the credits roll.

Many professional wrestlers have moved on to acting

Wrestling and movies are not so different. Wrestling is often described as something artificial, but it is predetermined. The moves really hurt, but the participants in the ring follow a script and put on a show in front of the audience and cameras, where they have to memorize lines and hit marks. We used to dismiss it as a curiosity when it happened, but why shouldn’t wrestlers become actors? Hulk Hogan And “Rowdy” Roddy Piper were the first to succeed in the 80s, and while Hogan’s films were pretty bad, Piper played in John Zimmermann‘S you liveIt became so normal for wrestlers to become actors that the WWE even founded its own film department. Some of today’s biggest stars, like Dwayne Johnson, John Cena and Dave Bautista, first made their name as wrestling superstars. Roman Reigns will be the next to dominate Hollywood after his retirement. CM Punk is one of the all-time best storytellers in wrestling history, but due to his smaller stature, it seemed unlikely that he would leave the ring for action movies. When Punk finally decided to give acting a try, he did so with a horror film, which was a perfect choice since there has always been a slight overlap between wrestling and horror fans.

“Girl on the Third Floor” was filmed in a real murder house

Many of the wrestlers mentioned above have starred in big budget action movies that featured gunfights, explosions, and lots of supporting characters, but just like Punk’s character in wrestling, Girl on the third floorr is very different. Punk plays an ex-con named Don Koch who buys a run-down house to fix up for his pregnant wife. Most of the film is spent alone in the house, with plenty of quiet moments and no insidious villains and their minions in sight. Instead, Don has to face something much, much worse. The girl on the third floor is a haunted house movie, as you can tell by the black goo dripping from the walls. Then there is the strange woman Sarah (Sarah Brooks), who appears and seduces Don, causing him to take drastic measures to cover up his mistakes. Without giving everything away, this house has a very dark past, with some disturbing things hidden in the walls just waiting to come out. Someone died here, and disturbingly The film was actually shot in a real house where someone was murdered.

In an interview with the Nightmare on Film Street podcast, writer-director Travis Stevens talked about buying the abandoned house from the film as a real estate investment, but then he heard stories from the area about what once happened in it and decided, “Before we do what we’re going to do with it, we might as well make a movie here.” When none of his other script proposals worked out, Stephens decided to write one that incorporated those stories from the area about his new home. He said, “If we’re going to make a haunted house movie in a real haunted house, we have to do our best to at least honor the story of the trauma that took place there. Otherwise, it’s definitely exploitative.” Stevens’ house had been a brothel several decades earlier, and the story goes that a man once killed a young woman who worked there. Although the story was absolutely tragic, it allowed The girl on the third floor to explore some important topics.

“Girl on the Third Floor” is weak because it is too similar to other films

There’s more going on with Sarah, the woman Don seduces, than meets the eye, and she creates a flawed hero we root for even though he’s now cheating on his pregnant wife. Only what waits within the walls – depicted with some phenomenal special effects depicting the transformation of the subjects – can explain the secrets Sarah carries with her. There are some important messages conveyed throughout the film about sexual assault, trauma, and the sins of men against women that are much scarier than any blood scene. The girl on the third floor is at its best when it focuses on that, but its biggest flaw is how often it copies from other haunted house and gory horror films. There are many scenes that are reminiscent of, for example, The Shining – The Wonderful World of Madnesswith ghost sightings on every corner and a man driven to madness.

Travis Stevens admitted to Nightmare on Film Street that “it was easier to have the framework of something as well-defined as a haunted house movie, because then it was almost like having training wheels.” He admitted that the expectations of a tried-and-tested formula allowed him to be creative and made him realize he was making a variation. Stevens even went so far as to say, “Maybe in two movies we’ll do something really original.”

It is refreshing to hear a new artist say he knows he is a beginner who is not going to set the world on fire with a new story, but that does not mean that The girl on the third floor is still not captivating. The special effects are top-notch, the scares are deserved, and CM Punk seems like a seasoned veteran. When he hangs up his wrestling boots, he will surely join the ranks of sports entertainers who went on to become leading figures in Hollywood.

The girl on the third floor can be viewed in the US on Tubi.

Watch on TUBI