Hotel sin salida

The ingredients are very familiar. So, to know the premise is to know the plot: Married couple on the outs travel through rural America, experience an automobile breakdown and locate the colorful folks in the back-country for assistance. What ensues is the usual "survive the night" style narrative with a few minor modifications.

That said, Luke Wilson (who apparently was a total PITA to work with) provides a very good performance. (If he was dialing it in, it certainly does not show.) And Kate Beckinsale was a great compliment to him the whole way through. In short, whatever their horrible chemistry off-set; on-set, it worked (after all, "David" and "Amy" are a couple in the midst of a divorce).

On top of that, the set design, lighting and pace of events are really quite good. And while there are some plot holes, this film had just enough energy and pluck to keep me interested. (The producers wisely trimmed it to 1:25.)

Amy and David are close to ending their marriage, and share one final journey, the pair break down and check into a hotel, one which hides a very bleak secret.

The snuff film thriller was definitely in vogue back in 2007, it's a genre that has definitely died away, but Vacancy is a film that's well worth revisiting.

I'm not sure why, but I've always thought this film has an Alfred Hitchcock vibe about it, even that music in the opening credits seems to fit the bill.

A good old fashioned game of cat and mouse, with Amy and David taking on their captors, fortunately they're noy the brightest bunch.

Genre wise it's pretty much a horror thriller, I only wish they had ramped up the horrors element a little more.

It's not particularly unique, but it's very watchable, it's well paced, and given the fairly short running time it moves along without any lull.

Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson are both very competent in their respective roles.

7/10.

To tel you the plot of this movie would be telling you the plot of a hundred other films of the horror genre. Couple in car, car breaks down, couple goes to motel, motel people are crazy and try to kill them. So how does Vacancy try to step out of the conventional horror genre it has already set itself up as? Why not cast Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale...oh yeah, they are being killed for a snuff film too.

Vacancy isn't so much a film, as it is an exercise. It's an exercise in the genre of horror. It doesn't amount to anything, it simply exists to see what they could do with film. It's not good enough to be classified as experimental and not crappy enough to be called B movie trash. Hell, it's only 85 minutes long. It's a film that has both positives and negatives and if you take it with a grain of salt, you can have a lot of fun with it.

The negatives this film has can be turned into positives if you're willing. That is of course if you don't take this film too seriously. It has all the horror clichés, broken down car, creepy hotel, creepy guy, cell phone that doesn't work. These little things seem to be mandatory in horror films these days that involve slashers. So where does Vacancy separate itself from other slasher films? It has no teens in it. Instead we get a married couple who are getting a divorce. Unfortunately, we hate them just as much, if not more then any teen in any teen slasher.

These two characters do a lot of stupid things. Who goes down a tunnel not knowing where it leads, especially when the people trying to kill you use it. Who breaks a mirror to use a sharp piece as a weapon....and not use it. Hell, I was yelling at him for not using the shower curtain rod as a weapon. I never cared for these people at all, Wilson is miscast and Beckinsale is irritating. She looks good, but looks aren't everything. I couldn't cheer for them to live, but I couldn't really cheer for them to die either. For some strange reason I found many scenes to be suspenseful. It's an odd feeling when you don't like the main characters. Aside from the desk clerk, the bad guys are basically faceless mutes. Their reasoning for doing what they are doing is never mentioned. I can only guess they make these sick videos for some sick truck drivers. The snuff film aspect was a nice addition and it set up for some good tension, but it never delivers on that initial tension.

It sets itself apart as much as it could, but falls into its own tricks. It doesn't have the gore that other films these days have, but the actions from characters are so clichéd that whatever it tried to do to set itself apart is meaningless. Vacancy doesn't go to the twist ending route, nor does it try to go out on a downer. It simply ties everything in a nice little bow. It cheats the audience. The film would have been stronger had it ended with a death, and not a cop out.

While Vacancy isn't as bad as people have said it was, it isn't great either. As previously mentioned, it isn't so much of a film as it is an exercise in a specific genre. It does well in some areas and fails greatly at others.

Vacancy;; Vacancy opens as a typical horror film, following a soon to be divorced couple, Amy and David Fox, driving down a winding road, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. Car troubles lead them to an abandoned motel where the manager informs them the mechanic will be back early in the morning. He seems friendly at first, and offers them a discount on the Honeymoon suite. Amy is resistant, but David convinces her.

Amy's first impression of the Motel was right on target, as a series of creepy events lead David and Amy to watch a video tape in which various guests at the same hotel are murdered. Soon after, David finds hidden cameras in the vents. Suddenly, the lights go out, and David and Amy must fight to find a way to escape... or end up getting slaughtered on tape like everyone else.

I am an avid horror movie fan, although lately I have run into the problem of not getting scared during these so called "scary movies." I am pleased to report, not just to horror film fans, but movie fans alike, Vacancy is actually scary. And that is just about the biggest compliment a movie such as this could get.

Throughout the 80 minute running time of Vacancy, I jumped a few times, gasped once or twice, and had white knuckles for almost the entire time. Luke Wilson and Kate Bekinsale give good performances as the bickering victims, and direction is particularly well-done. Director Nimrod Antal makes a wise choice, veering from torture, blood and guts, and relying mostly on putting these characters we care about in taut, tense situations.

Vacancy is a fun, frightening horror movie. 3 from 4.

If I learned anything from "Psycho" it's not to stay at a remote motel. If I learned anything from "Dead End" it's that you never leave the interstate as a detour--no matter what. If learned anything from "Breakdown" it's that if a stranger touches your car it will stop working shortly thereafter. David and Amy Fox (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) committed all three errors.

The bickering passive aggressive couple were on their way home from a family gathering when David decided to take a detour due to a crash on the main highway. Eventually he reached a point where he was lost and on top of that he damaged the car when he swerved to miss a raccoon. They stopped at the first gas station they saw for directions and perhaps a mechanic's opinion. Instead they got a mechanic who tampered with the vehicle and debilitated it. With it being too late to do anything else the couple stayed at the nearby roach motel. And that's when the craziness started.

Much like we'd see in "The Strangers" in 2008, "Vacancy" was about a sadistic group of men who loved to terrorize the guests of the out-of-the-way motel. These psychotic freaks videoed their activities. And judging by their film library, they were prolific killers. With multiple hidden cameras set up in every room, the masked murderers aimed to get as much screaming and frantic behavior as they could from their unfortunate guests.

"Vacancy" keeps you on edge and your heart pumping. Every whimper, word, or whisper makes you flinch as you try to will the protagonists to be quiet and survive their ordeal. "Vacancy," like most thrillers and horrors, requires some suspended disbelief. A few things will annoy the thinking viewer, but it's not enough to make you pack it in. "Vacancy" keeps it interesting and suspenseful from beginning to end.