Another week, another one word title horror/thriller that leans more towards the thriller than the horror side of the genre ledger. Following hot on the heels of last weeks number one box office champ, Disturbia, Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale lead a cast of about seven in the taunt and effective thriller Vacancy. Vacancy is a tight, well paced thrill ride about two separating spouses, Dan and Amy (Wilson and Beckinsale) that have the misfortune of ending up at a remote motel due to car troubles. The isolated room for rent hole in the wall looks like a 1972 Trading Spaces project gone awry and the disgusting carpet and wallpaper is only slightly overshadowed by the cockroaches the size of a Chernobyl chicken that scatter under the carpet once the lights are turned on. Immediately, Dan and Amy feel uncomfortable as Paris Hilton at a Spelling Bee, but with the morning only a few hours away and the car left abandoned on the side of the road about a mile away, they decide to grin and bare it until daylight gives them the luxury of finding their way back. Good plan? Perhaps. But this is Motel Hell 2007 and when Dan utilizes the room VCR in hopes of entertaining himself with porn, he is quickly aghast with fear as video tape after video tape reveals snuff films of people suffering painful demises at the hands of intruders that seem to be having as much fun as Hannibal Lecter did when skinning his guard's face in Silence of the Lambs. At first, the tapes are looked at with almost a morbid curiosity, but that soon turns to terror when the unsuspecting couple decipher that the killings took place in the very room to which they are occupying. Think of the scene in 1979's When A Stranger Calls when she realizes the calls are coming from the same house and you might have a sense as to the immediate adrenaline at follows this revelation. So for the next 70 or so minutes, Dan and Amy will try and escape from the encroaching knife wielding psychos while utilizing horror smarts and secret passages under the hotel flooring to survive the night. Hmmm, where is a peaceful Hostel when you need one (wink wink nod nod). Vacancy is one of those films that I wasn't expecting to enjoy that ended up being a fun cat-and-mouse game where two characters are smart enough to know what they are up against and what actions are in their best interests to survive. Like Disturbia and with last years Red Eye, the screenwriters for Vacancy seem to appreciate that average folks don't always have to be out-weaponed AND out-smarted when trying to escape the pointy end of a blade. Dan and Amy do enough things right to keep themselves alive for the night and in turn, the audience plays right along without the usual shaking of the head in disbelief that someone would be stupid enough to play into the hands of their killer. If you are looking for gore a la Hostel, Vacancy will be a disappointment. The scares are primarily in the form of the chase or some loud door banging that shook my popcorn to the floor. There are scenes with plenty of the red stuff, but for the most part the horror comes in imagining the unimaginable while rooting for the underdog. But for those who liked Disturbia, Vacancy has all the elements of the genre and more to provide you with value for the admission ticket. The acting is pretty good (yes, I said it, Luke Wilson does an admirable job in a non-comedic role) and the direction under a guy by the name of Nimrod is for the most part lean and without many wasted shots. If I had a complaint about Vacancy it would be of the small potholes the film falls into by following the horror/thriller playbook. When it is revealed that Dan and Amy are separating after the death of their child (a story that is never really played out and completely unimportant to the overall plot), I rolled my eyes wondering how such a good film could fall into such a stereotypical misstep. So too was the flashlight that needed the horror standard knock with the other hand a few times to keep the torch lit Hmmm, ain't seen that before. But when the sum of all the body parts are collected together, Vacancy is a better than average film that will be one of those horror films that when showed on TBS in a continuous loop during a hot summer evening you will watch over and over again enjoying each sub-woofer induced bang on the wooden motel door.
Review of Vacancy
