Motel

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.

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.

While driving during the night, David Fox (Luke Wilson) leaves the interstate and takes a shortcut through a lonely road. He is in a divorce process with his wife Amy (Kate Beckinsale), who is sleeping in the car, after the loss of their son Charlie. In order to avoid hitting a raccoon, David breaks down the fan of his car and the couple finds stranded in the road. Without any other alternative, they decide to spend the night in a nasty low budget motel in the middle of nowhere. While watching some amateurish slash movies in the VCR, David realizes that they have been shot in their room. Sooner they discover that they are trapped in the place and surrounded by sadistic filmmakers of snuff movies.

"Vacancy" has a promising and claustrophobic beginning, with the scared couple stranded in a lonely place with a weird manager of an awful motel and listening to aggressive beats in the doors of their room. The development is also tense and good. However, the corny and commercial conclusion like in a television film spoils the story. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Temos Vaga" ("Vacancy")

Grieving over the loss of their son, David and Amy Fox are driving thru the night heading towards their destination...the signing of the divorce papers!. David unwisely leaves the interstate looking for a short cut and swerves to avoid hitting a raccoon, this causes engine trouble and eventually they have to settle for staying at a grotty roadside motel until the car can be fixed in the morning. Upon attempting to relax in their dirty and poorly decorated room, they are disturbed by loud banging on the doors to their room, this is merely the start of a night of terror as the Fox's will be forced to fight to stay alive in the confines of this Horror Motel!

Seen it before? Yes we all most certainly have, from proto slashers to Euro terrors, the couple under siege formula is as old as the hills themselves. But Vacancy has such a sense of fun and a unique use of its plot setting, that even a terribly formulaic cop out towards the end is mostly forgiven. The setting is one dirty hole of a motel, but the dirt is not merely confined to the structure and basic house keeping of the place, the worst dirt comes in a terrifying form that is fully formed from the moment we meet the creepy motel manager (a wonderfully cheesy Frank Whaley). From here our intrepid couple, very well played by Luke Wilson & Kate Beckinsale, must use the most basic resources to hand, to hopefully escape the clutches of masked assailants intent on gutting them in the name of entertainment.

What follows is the usual jumps and perilous set ups, and a quirky line in labyrinth adventure. But then that ending that almost derails the whole picture, it does hurt it because we the viewers can only feel let down that the makers chose to not stay with what would have been an impacting turn of events. But for a film that's homaging films (and thriller maestros) from the past and clearly doing what it set out to do, it's to me a forgivable error. It's not taking itself too seriously, and you shouldn't too, just check in with the Fox's and get involved with the thrills. 6.5/10

This is a typical thriller if you want to have a little scare at night. It is pretty fast-paced and gets to the action almost right away, from a divorcing couple's (Wilson and Beckinsale) issues on the road to ending at a freaky motel with strange banging noises in the room and finally to the mysterious video tapes in the room.

The movie became predictable midway towards the end, where the chase between the bad guys and the good guys begin. The villains take credit for being probably the most clueless I've seen on the screen. Their dialog is very cheesy and campy (I mean, who throws their opponent on top of a gun on the floor?). There's plenty of action, but I think the climax was a little rushed through and too predictable. Otherwise, it's an OK movie for a scare.

So, never check into a motel at night in the middle of nowhere. Sleep in your car instead.

Grade C