Davis P
Vacancy is a horror movie that is worth checking out. It's pretty entertaining and it's well acted. The film stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson. They plays a married couple that checks into a motel one night and things quickly turn south. They discover that they are being filmed in their room and that the owners plan on making a snuff film with them being the victims. They find the previous tapes containing horrible torture inflicted upon the victims who stayed in that room. The acting is good, I enjoyed both Beckinsale and Wilson's performances. They were convincing in their roles and played a convincing couple. The suspense and tension is high in the majority of the film, the scares are average. To me, this film isn't really all that scary as much as it is suspenseful and thrilling. The writing is average for this kind of movie. It's not full of great talented dialogue, but it's not bad at all. I was satisfied with the script, I thought it provided the audience with everything that is needed. It doesn't really strive to be the best, but you do see that the filmmakers did give a good amount of effort, they and the actors both really did give it their best shot. At the end of the day, it's not going to go down as a legendary horror movie, but it will entertain and it accomplished what it set out to accomplish. 7/10.
Sandra kane
Really liked this movie was well done and acted and the tension was quite excellent at times. The film starts with a couple recovering from the loss of there son and was incorporated in a neat way. There driving back from a family reunion and there relationship seems doomed then the fun really starts when there car breaks down, you have to watch this movie as I will not spoil the rest!!!!
Leofwine_draca
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.
NateWatchesCoolMovies
The strongest asset that Vacancy has going for it is a deliciously tense and artistic set of opening credits. Now that can be seen as an insult in a review by some, but I'm happy to report that following that terrific opening is a nasty little flick that delivers the genre goods nicely. It's nothing new or noteworthy, but it tries, and commits itself to its macabre little setup pretty well, leaving us with a slice of suspenseful horror in the tradition of stuff like The Strangers and Psycho. The aforementioned credits are a scintillating parade of impressive graphic design accompanied by a heart-skipping, nerve clawing score by Paul Haslinger, formerly of Tangerine Dream. This sets the tone for the events to follow, in which Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson play an unfortunate couple whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere at the witching hour, forcing them to take refuge at one of the countless ominous, isolated motels which populate cinematic Americana. The first red flag is the desk clerk, a twitchy little weasel played by Frank Whaley. Whaley is best known as the guy who provoked the wrath of Samuel L. Jackson by saying 'what' one more goddamned time in Pulp Fiction. Here he milks his squirmy, freakazoid role for all its worth, treating the couple with all the good natured charm of a king cobra. Beckinsale and Wilson settle in for the night and are almost immediately descended upon by masked psychos who prowl the property and leer outside their windows. So begins the archetypal cat and mouse game of survival, as the two evade a group of marauding sickos who have been preying on unsuspecting guests for a long, long time. The two leads are solid, especially Beckinsale who let's the fear cord rip in certain impressive moments. Whaley steals his scenes and gets under your skin. It's standard horror done pretty darn well. Recommended.
AD
