Others say...

""That Room On The Tape Looks Awfully Familiar...Even Though We JUST Got Here...""
Caught this one off cable recently and honestly I wasn't all that impressed. Wilson and Beckinsale do an adequate job as the broken-hearted couple who's marriage is crumbling after the death of their child, but what got me most about this film is the various degrees of illogical plot points running throughout it. Sure, as a Hitchcockian thriller it does a good job of emulating that eras feel, but in placing that type of film in present-day make sure you have your characters act accordingly. For example, if you were an inn-keeper who secretly killed various guests in a violent invasion style solely for the puropse of filming it to sell snuff films, why in the world would you leave some of the tapes in that room for the future victims to be warned? And if you saw a bunch of cameras in your room's airvents after those tapes, wouldn't you rip them off the walls in shock and anger? Though logic aside, this is a decent middle-of-the-road thriller with a couple of interesting scenes, but with a somewhat let-down "see, I'm okay after all" ending. Yes Frank Whaley does come off in this flix as Norman Bates-like, but could probably have pushed the limits a little more, and I'm still surprised that each new viewer of those tapes can recognize that they're in the same motel room just in seconds, even though they just got there. Rent it/Cable.
(RedSabbath Rating:7.0/10)

"Sick, Sophomoric and Stupid"
Title says it all. It's really sad that Kate Beckinsale would degrade herself by appearing in this voyeuristic tripe. And if the film is not enough, the DVD includes extended snuff scenes for your viewing pleasure. Entirely predictable, no twists that couldn't be seen a mile away, a complete rip off of far, far better films.

The highway wasn't the only thing they left to find themselves at this motel: any acting, plot or character development, directing or photography must still be on that highway.

Kate says it best in the film, "This has to be some kind of joke, right?"

"Suspenseful, Yet Campy Combination Detract from the Horror"
We start out with a couple who is truly on the verge of divorce. We start out with their bickering and snappy remarks at each other. Their trip takes a turning point when the car breaks down on an isolated road at night. They walk back to the gas station where the terror begins:

Set in a rundown motel, in the middle of nowhere, a couple finds themselves trapped at night while being stalked by deranged killers - after they have discovered a cache of old videocassettes of murders in a motel room. The motel room that they are currently staying in! The cinematic effects and music add to the suspense of this thriller.

However, one unrealistic character, the motel manager (who looks like the manager of my father in law's motel, LOL!) takes away from this movie being a 5 star movie. Luke Wilson and Kate Bechkinsale are very good actors, and you can feel and share in their horror.

Overall, it's a dark movie that will keep you jumping in your seats. Will they ever escape before the killers carve them up?

Makes you think twice about staying in a desolate 1 star Motel. You get what you pay for.

What makes it scary? It is not too far fetched from our daily lives.

VERDICT

Good movie for suspense!

"deplorably pathetic beyond any grasp of anything sane or meaningful"
2007's Vacancy is so bad, it goes far beyond the stretch of imaginative words one can use to describe in no uncertain terms, how truly horrible a film can actually be. The accolades that some reviewers give this, makes me cringe with fright to fully comprehend that another breathing, living human being actually thought this was worth any iota of time to even consider this more than a one star rating. The understanding that two people in a hotel who find a vhs tape with other people getting mauled in the same room was rather chilling, but the reactions by the two leads, played sophmorically horrific by Kate Beckinsale and the inate and pathetic Luke Wilson, are enough to make anyone cringe at an audition for even a Tide commercial in the big city. Luke Wilson is a two-bit pirate of a non talent, and this movie in of itself, showed the very coinage of his capacity to actually care whether or not he brings life, beliveability and cohesion to a role, which is anything but that. I know 10 year olds in acting classes that would have had a more surreal and natural response to being in a hotel room that CLEARLY was a cocoon for rampid killings, and they, both Kate and Luke look at each other, as in some sketch comedy routine (perhaps Monty Python) with their hands on their cheeks wondering, 'oh my Luke, oh golly gee oh darn, what shall we do, where shall we go...." How about the $^$^$ door for starters, instead of sitting around both looking like lemmings getting carted off to your three hour med cycle.

Vacancy can't deliver, because it has no ensemble to tease us with. The premise is rather unique and mundane at the same time, however the fact of two people getting chased around a hotel room in the middle of a city God forgot, and hopping from different rooms to different rooms, while many extras, and gophers bang on various items or the doors, is NOT creepy, not scary, and not in the least warranted to be anything that an ill attempt at trying to cash in on the Saw series, and ones like it.

Vacancy is for patrons of ill repute watering holes, who have nothing better to do with their time, then spend their two hours on mediocre acting, without a fresh twist, plot or cliffhanger. Absolutely sad.

"deplorably pathetic beyond any grasp of anything sane or meaningful"
2007's Vacancy is so bad, it goes far beyond the stretch of imaginative words one can use to describe in no uncertain terms, how truly horrible a film can actually be. The accolades that some reviewers give this, makes me cringe with fright to fully comprehend that another breathing, living human being actually thought this was worth any iota of time to even consider this more than a one star rating. The understanding that two people in a hotel who find a vhs tape with other people getting mauled in the same room was rather chilling, but the reactions by the two leads, played sophmorically horrific by Kate Beckinsale and the inate and pathetic Luke Wilson, are enough to make anyone cringe at an audition for even a Tide commercial in the big city. Luke Wilson is a two-bit pirate of a non talent, and this movie in of itself, showed the very coinage of his capacity to actually care whether or not he brings life, beliveability and cohesion to a role, which is anything but that. I know 10 year olds in acting classes that would have had a more surreal and natural response to being in a hotel room that CLEARLY was a cocoon for rampid killings, and they, both Kate and Luke look at each other, as in some sketch comedy routine (perhaps Monty Python) with their hands on their cheeks wondering, 'oh my Luke, oh golly gee oh darn, what shall we do, where shall we go...." How about the $^$^$ door for starters, instead of sitting around both looking like lemmings getting carted off to your three hour med cycle.

Vacancy can't deliver, because it has no ensemble to tease us with. The premise is rather unique and mundane at the same time, however the fact of two people getting chased around a hotel room in the middle of a city God forgot, and hopping from different rooms to different rooms, while many extras, and gophers bang on various items or the doors, is NOT creepy, not scary, and not in the least warranted to be anything that an ill attempt at trying to cash in on the Saw series, and ones like it.

Vacancy is for patrons of ill repute watering holes, who have nothing better to do with their time, then spend their two hours on mediocre acting, without a fresh twist, plot or cliffhanger. Absolutely sad.