User Reviews

This movie wasn't the Bates Motel of horror movies, but more like the cheap motel of horror. It's cheaply made, but what they do with the resources they had is interesting. The opening credits use a very Saul Bass style. They're being creative with fonts and titles in the opening. The music was surprisingly catchy as well. The banging at the beginning was good, that created an atmosphere of tension. A vacationing couple, David (Luke Wilson) and Amy Fox (Kate Beckinsale) check in a nearby motel, when their car breaks down. This motel is run by a weird little night manager Mason (Frank Whaley) and the couple take the honeymoon suite. In their room, looking for entertainment for the evening, the pair finds a VCR tape. They put it on their television, and find it to be a low-budget slasher film. After watching for a while, they come upon realizing that all of the films seem to have been shot in the very same room they currently occupy. David and Amy suddenly become the stars of a real life horror snuff film. They realize they must escape, or they will become the next victims. The filmmakers sketch in enough of David and Amy's back story for us to want them to survive. This thriller is scripted by Mark L. Smith and directed by Nimród Antal. Nimrod use hidden cameras to track their every move, and takes the cue from Hitchcock opting for suspense over graphic violence and torture. Vacancy might not get Mr. Hitchcock smiling from above. But he won't be spinning in his grave, either. The film has a pure cat-and-mouse chase. The movie squeezes the maximum in suspense out of one location, as all the scenes are film just there. It runs through every permutation of the motel-hell concept. The film has a nice sense of claustrophobia, particularly when the couple discovers a labyrinth of dirt tunnels under the motel. Luke Wilson doesn't have time to indulge in acting when surviving. The roles of both can be judge by the amounts of yelling and running, not only between them and the killer, but with each other. The audience can really felt the distance between the 2 main characters in the beginning. Other than that the female character Kate plays is bitchy and Luke's performance was boring and wooden. I'm all for female empowerment, but I found Kate Beckinsale's survivor transformation a little hard to believe. Up until very late in the film, and after she stops being a jerk, she's usually whimpering in a corner. In fact, she doesn't seem to be able to do anything but follow her husband around. And yes, I understand that it's all about juxtaposition, if she wasn't fragile at first, her later transformation wouldn't be as evident later. Still, survival instincts can only go so far. Whaley creates a memorable cracker-barrel crazy man that borderlines modes his role on Dennis Weaver's jittery night clerk in the Orson Welles classic "Touch of Evil ." The film use subtle fright tactics: sound effects over gallons of blood, a shard of glass over a chainsaw which gives it props, but Vacancy suffers from too many horror flick clichés using killers in masks, cellphones that are conveniently out of range, etc. etc. There is still enough violence to warrant its R rating. Without spoiling the ending—check out the film to see how it ends. Check in the motel, indeed.

Vacancy has Alfred Hitchcock's finger prints smeared all over it, in fact at several times, especially the quite nifty looking opening credits, seems a lot like a homage to the great horror maestro himself. Its true, that even many years after Hitchcok finished making movies, that his movie still stay in memory for longer than most of the recent Hollywood horror that has arrived. The Birds and Psycho are far more memorable than the House of Wax remake or The Reaping. Hitchcock's movies worked because he had great characterisation and also a great sense of atmosphere, you could sit and watch a Hitchcock movie and be terrified for half an hour before anything scary actually happens. The sense of foreboding and incredibly skilfully done atmosphere did that to an audience. Nowadays we get cheap jump out of your seat scares and torture scenes designed to sicken. Initially my thoughts towards seeing Vacancy were not great, the trailer looked alright, but my guess was it would just be another lame, modern slasher flick. So what a great surprise to say that Vacancy is a good little movie that actually has some genuine scares in it. The movie isn't gory, nor is it jumpy, the movie is unsettling and creepy. Now this is what a true horror movie should do in my eyes, if a movie can unsettle without resorting to jump scares then it is a success. Vacncay pulls this off, well it pulls this off for a majority of the time. The movie is an absolute success until the ending, at the ending it seems to flounder a bit and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. But everything up until the ending is a joy to watch.

What surprised me most about Vacancy has to be the actual acting. When I saw the trailer and saw that Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson were the leading couple I nearly burst out laughing. For starters Luke Wilson is a comedy man, he's designed to make funny movies. Well when I say funny movies I mean if he has the right material as just recently I've found him as unfunny as can be. Kate Beckinsale just doesn't seem the type to be in a horror movie. But its this bizarre casting that pays off so well. Luke Wilson really proves himself in this movie, to the extent I want him to focus more on a serious acting career, he seems to be more at home here than he has in years with his comedy movies. Kate Beckinsale also proves herself admirably. The pair are believable, and you actually start to care for them. Wishing that they will escape the nightmare, hoping that they find a way out. Their performances are so much different from the usual stupid teenagers we see in horror movies today, its refreshing to see adults in this horrific situation. The villains of the movie are also quite menacing for the majority of the time, the hotel manager played by Frank Whaley is a good character. He's not on screen too often, but he does play a creepy little man very well.

So what of the scares then? Well as I've said the movie is at times pretty scary. Not for the first twenty minutes mind you, that is dedicated for set up and too increase the atmosphere. Those scenes work very well and once again its refreshing to see genuine character development in a horror movie, made better by the fact the two leads are great. However, the minute the couple enter the hotel room the focus shifts. Bangings on the wall and doors begin, the phone rings with nobody on the other end. From that point onwards the movie gets terrifying, the bangings on the wall really starts to creep you out at one point. Once the big bad secret about the motel is discovered, after watching some tapes, and the lights suddenly go out. The movie succeeds in terrifying. After the lights go out I guarantee you will be sitting on the edge of your seats. The movie does a couple of jump scares here and there, but it focuses mainly on the unseen terror. The minute the bangings stopped you aren't relieved, you're even more terrified because then you don't know what the people are up to. Its this sense of terror that makes the movie worthy of a recommendation. Its nice to see a horror movie try scaring and unsettling the audience once in a while. Its nothing a hardcore horror fan can't handle, but it definitely will unsettle the general population of people.

As I've said the movie isn't perfect. The ending being the major setback of the movie. After the brilliant set up, and the scary middle section, the ending seems to run out of steam. In fact it seemed like the writers wasn't sure what to do anymore and did a few obvious things and quickly ended the movie. It feels rushes and unlike the rest of the movie, unskillfully made. Its the ending that fails in making this a complete homage to Hitchcock, Hitchcock could deliver an ending, this movie doesn't really get an ending. The ending is enough to leave you satisfied, but in a movie that exceeds all expectations you expect more from the ending.

Vacancy is a good old fashioned horror/thriller. Its only let down by its pretty disappointing ending. The run time is pretty short, making the experience short and sharp enough to pack a real punch. Its really worth checking out just for the brilliant set up and middle section. But the ending really does make the movie suffer a little bit. Still this is definitely a good horror movie, and more horror movies made in this style would be a welcome relief.

If we learn anything about David (Luke Wilson) and Amy Fox (Kate Beckinsale), the heroes of Vacancy, it is that they have obviously never watched a horror movie in their lives. If they had, they would have known better than to check into the Pinewood Motel and we would be left without a movie. The obvious signs are numerous and ominous. There's the sound of a woman's blood-curdling screams coming from behind the front desk when they check in, there's the mousy and immediately suspicious man running the front desk (Frank Whaley) who makes Norman Bates look like a well-adjusted model employee, and there's the overall creepy vibe that the entire building itself gives off. It's not until they discover the gruesome snuff films in their motel room and the masked madmen start chasing them down that the two finally start fearing for their lives. All the audience can do by that point is sit back and silently say "told you so" to the characters.

When we first meet the unlucky couple, they are a constantly feuding husband and wife who are taking an ill-advised road trip together as kind of a last memory of their relationship before the divorce papers become final. Tensions are high, and the fact that their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere does not exactly help matters. This leads them to the "Motel from Hell" where they ignore the previously mentioned signs of trouble, and check into a scuzzy room where roaches scurry about and mysterious stains cover the bed sheets. They quickly catch on that there's much more to worry about when David discovers some videotapes of what appears to be former guests in the same room they're staying in being brutally beaten and murdered by masked men. Discovering that they are being videotaped at all times by numerous hidden cameras in the room, the couple try to escape, but find the outside area of the motel being patrolled by those mysterious men on the video who refuse to let them leave. It turns out this entire building is a trap set by some very deranged individuals who murder any guest unfortunate enough to check in, and videotape the results for their own twisted amusement.

With a running time that barely manages to hit 80 minutes, Vacancy is tightly edited and tightly paced. Not a second is wasted as the movie dives head-first into its genuinely creepy premise. There are a number of scenes that are bound the raise the tension of all but the most jaded of horror buffs. The brief glimpses that we see of the crudely made murder videos are terrifying without being exploitive, as the movie is wise not to linger too long on the images. The tension is built up even more when creepy and mysterious stuff starts happening. There's a very loud banging on the door of the motel room, and even on the walls from the room next door. The power starts flickering on and off at random, and it's obvious that someone or something is messing with them. It's when the mysterious men start popping up and chasing our heroes that the movie stops being frightening and intriguing, and simply turns into a generic slasher film. (Albeit a slasher film with better production and acting values than the norm.) The men lurk about in the dark just outside the motel room, pop up in front of windows suddenly, and really don't do a whole heck of a lot. It's a bit of a let down after such a generally creepy set up.

Filmmaker Nimrod Antal has a strong look and an obvious eye for creeping out his audience, but he seems to run out of ideas once his characters start running away. That doesn't mean he doesn't do what he can with the material. He makes the most of his limited setting, managing to find ways to avoid making the movie come across as being repetitive. He stages some sequences in a large variety of places around the motel, as well as a complex series of tunnels underneath the building that the villains use to get around. He is further aided by a game cast that help lift the material up a little bit from the B-grade junk it obviously is. Mainly known for his comedic work, Luke Wilson makes for a pretty decent everyman in the male lead. He seems genuinely unnerved as the realization of just how bad the situation is slowly dawns on him. As his wife, Kate Beckinsale is given slightly less to do until the final 10 minutes or so when she is forced to take control and fight for both of their survival. Until then, she mostly switches back and forth from being bitchy and irritable to being weepy and fearful. As the head of the whole shady motel operation, Frank Whaley is appropriately slimy, but much like the other villains, he is given very little to do once his role in the plot is revealed.

Vacancy has no notions of being anything but what it is - a somewhat enjoyable little piece of horror escapism that hits some good notes, but is far too slight and forgettable to leave much of an impression. It's not bad, but it is disappointing after a fairly strong opening half hour that hints at much more. The movie is brisk and well-made, at the very least. Still, I can't get over the notion that perhaps the film does it's job a bit too well at setting up an ominous atmosphere at the motel. I don't think anyone would be able to set foot there without expecting murderous masked madmen lurking about somewhere nearby. If you're trying to lure people into a death trap, I would suggest maybe using a somewhat more cheerful facade. Might attract more business. Couldn't hurt is all I'm saying.

Supposedly their actual existence is debatable, but snuff films could be reduced to urban legend status. Still, this world has some dark corners, so I wouldn't put it out of mind completely. Nevertheless, the idea of people getting pleasure from filming live murders and torture is frightening. However, as much as it could be, 'Vacancy' is not.

The idea for this film is not fully realized and instead it's reduced to a cat and mouse chase that becomes all to predictable. Beyond the initial viewing of the snuff tapes (left intentionally in the room by the manager), which is probably the film's most intense scene, the couple runs from room to room as they attempt to get away, which the film makes too easy for them at times.

The real issue lies with the lack of details in the workings of the villains and motel. It appears we have three men who do nothing more than check people into a room and kill them soon after. They do very little to toy with their minds. No mystery about the villains exists. The hotel manager is the only one afforded any time for development and it is all far too superficial. What is needed is some more for the villains to do. I doubt that after doing this for as long as they have, their methods would be as primitive and mundane as displayed here.

The always beautiful Beckinsale and seemingly aloof Wilson, who manages to sidestep his usual goof-ball role, do what they can with what they are given. Aside from an opening scene where they lay out the status of their marriage, they are given very little time for further development--outside of the typical "I love you now that we have been through something awful." All in all, a very mediocre film that could have been so much more with a reworking. Also, if you do see this film, see if you can spot the moment when the script writers had no other ideas on where to go next. It's obvious.

What a cheesy, unbelievable waste of 85 minutes. After watching Underworld, seeing Kate's Zoloft/Prozac addicted girlie girl character was more painful and disappointing than the plot and ending of the movie. Luke Wilson's character was no better, doing stupid things like cutting himself while breaking a mirror to make a weapon that he never uses and generally being as effective as a rat in a maze, running around in circles. And what is up with this side-plot of the dead son that drives the couple to a divorce that they're driving home to finalize? It takes the threat of death for Luke to tell Kate that it wasn't her fault and he loves her? Of all the ridiculous scenes... And the fact that he remains alive hours after being stabbed multiple times pushed suspended disbelief to its limits as did the scene where the second 911 operator says, "Duh, didn't we send a deputy out there already?" Must be the Keystone cops that don't send help out when their deputy doesn't check in after responding to a 911 call. As satisfying as it was seeing Kate finally grow a backbone and a will to live and manage to kill all her sadistic assailants, this transformation from her former passive-aggressive, whimpering, Prozac-popping self just wasn't believable either. The movie would have been much better if it stuck to a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" mentality where no matter what the protagonists did, they were screwed... and I have to say that the protagonists in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" were much more likable than Kate and Luke. At least if the movie pushed it all the way and Luke was really dead and Kate was blown away even though she managed to take out a couple of the guys, it maybe would have been more believable and would have retained more of its shock value.

Aside from all of the above, the gratuitous extended snuff film footage in the Special Features section is yet another reason to stay away from this one.

Antal's film does not exactly present anything new to the genre but what I liked about it is that it does not complicate things. It's quite a straightforward movie and it sticks to the main story and the end credits will be rolling after a crisp 80 minutes. Unlike most Hollywood films of the genre 'Vacancy' does not overuse twists (like after suffering dozens of fatal stab wounds, the killer, with its last breath, suddenly jumps to life for one last attempt to kill the hero/heroine) that tend to ruin the entire popcorn experience (these twists have become so frequent that they tend to be unintentionally funny). Sure, 'Vacancy' is not without its share of flaws. There are plot holes, like why did the policeman drive alone to the motel after receiving the emergency call? The dialogue is nothing great and, typically, there is a lot of swearing. The characters David and Amy are quite well written and the viewer does sympathize for them. I liked the subplot about the trauma of the accidental death of their child destroying their marriage. The villains are caricatured. The viewer gets no background info on them and they appear as mere sadistic killers enjoying making snuff movies. Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale are brilliant. They do bring a certain amount of depth that rises above the usual kind of performances you see in such films. 'No Vacancy' is a typical slasherish thriller that is well edited and well acted (by the two leads) and those who enjoy this genre may like this picture.

I didn't have much interest in seeing Vacancy, but I heard terrific things about it over the weekend, and my boyfriend and I saw it last night, but the funny thing was, I know everything that was going to happen next because of the Vacancy trailer. I mean I was like "ok, this is the part where they find the underground hole the killers used to get to their room", it was that predictable. While I would admit that it was a good thriller, the trailer just ruined the movie for me. Not to mention that the ending was predictable and just ended too quickly and was just so off-hand.

Amy and David are coming back from a party, they are having a troubled marriage from a tragedy involving their son. But when the car breaks down, they pull into a garage, and a man helps them but the car breaks down again, they head back to the garage to learn that the guy is gone and they have to stay in a cheap and filthy motel. But things quickly get scary when David finds a tape that contains people being brutally murdered in their hotel room! Huge noises happen and all of a sudden the killers are after them! They have to live a night of horror and try to survive what could happen to them!

Vacancy is a great thriller, I will always admit, it was scary at times, but like I said, the trailer just reveled too much and I was a little disappointed, but over all I would recommend it for a scary night. But jus to warn you, there are some pretty stupid people in this movie, like the way the characters acted and responded to things, it makes you wonder if they should have been killed. :P LOL, but still go ahead and have fun; and a word to the trailer editor, I advise, please don't reveal the best parts of the movie in your next trailer, because otherwise you might just blow an entire movie!

6/10

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.

VACANCY is one of those thrillers in which a fairly good premise is ruined by a sloppy execution. It begins predictably enough, with a bickering couple whose car breaks down forced to stay at a run-down motel managed by a creepy, nerdish guy. Soon enough there's a twist when they stick on a videotape and realise that snuff films have been made right in the room they're in and they're next on the list.

So far, so good. The set-up and look of the film is very familiar, but I could overlook that. There were a few chilling vibes a la HOSTEL, especially during the videotape playback. Not a great deal of atmosphere, but a little suspense. Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale were a couple of sympathetic leads, so I was looking forward to some cat-and-mouse hijinks. But then the film falls apart to become an endless chase, and reality goes out of the window. Our heroes crawl through a network of underground tunnels, are chased by masked, boiler suit-wearing killers modelling themselves on Michael Myers, escape death numerous times...and I just stopped caring at that point. It's ludicrous, it really is, and would have worked better as a nightmare sequence than a film supposedly set in the real world.

It reminded me of FLIGHTPLAN, in that there's no way the villains would have gone to this much elaboration and trouble to commit their crime. The film never picks up after then either. The ending is highly predictable as is the intervention of a sole sheriff character. In the end, this is a bore – or indeed a chore – to watch. Not the worst I've seen, but getting pretty close in places.