Vacancy (2007)

Overall rating from 1 to 100: 29

O Masterpiece (95-100)
O Excellent (75-94)
O Good video rental (60-74)
O Merely OK (50-59)
O Pure mediocrity (30-49)
X Medusa: don’t watch (1-29)

Review by Jason Pyles / April 21, 2007

What an unpleasant, nasty little venture this movie is. And that’s just what it was intended to be because of its subject matter: “Vacancy” is a horror story about an unlucky couple who fall into a snuff film operation, like flies into a spider’s web.

If you’re unfamiliar with this sick concept, snuff films are movies that show the actual murders of actual people. Essentially, snuff films are violence pornography; and worst of all, such things exist — along with many fake imitations.

David and Amy Fox (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) have a relationship that’s on the rocks. Apparently, they’ve shared a mutual tragedy that they feel their marriage cannot overcome. Watching the way the two treat each other is almost as sad as the way they’re treated by the snuff filmmaker(s). (I thought I had somehow subjected myself to “The Break-Up” (2006) again.)

Because of a wreck on the interstate, the couple from Los Angeles take an alternate route, resulting in their getting lost on a dark, windy road during their all-night road trip. When their car begins to break down, they pull into Small’s, a filling station where “everyday’s the fourth of July.” Beside this gas station is a dumpy place called the Pinewood Motel.

When the two decide to spend the night, they find video tapes of people being brutally murdered in their room. A cat-and-mouse game ensues between the victims and the killer(s).

Basically, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie. That is the whole movie. The couple try to survive being cast as the stars of the motel’s next snuff film.

Kate Beckinsale does a wonderful job with her performance. I was worried about Luke Wilson, however, because he has been type-cast as a comedic actor. And though he’s up to the challenge and performs quite well, I couldn’t take him seriously. His mere presence took the edge off the movie’s realism.

The movie isn’t creative; there’s no originality or innovation. In fact, “Vacancy” owes a lot to “Psycho” (1960), with its similar motel-murders-scenario and Norman Bates-like character.

Like “The Blair Witch Project” (1999), this film could have been made on a very low budget. In many ways, “Vacancy” is like a snuff film itself: hopeless, joyless, thoughtless, evil garbage.

See something else.

Directed by Nimrod Antal
Kate Beckinsale / Luke Wilson
80 min. Horror
MPAA: R (for brutal violence and terror, brief nudity and language)

Copyright 2007.
JP0081 : 380