Vacancy (2007)

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")

Fmovies: Vacancy is a shot of thriller mix with a shot of horror served straight up,no ice, in room temperature. A great great movie for this type of genre OBVIOUSLY not for everyone, but if you are a fan and feel a little down about many other so called horror, thriller movies that are simply S*@T, movies that are relying on fancy special effects or remakes of other films from the past or different country LATELY, well, this would be the one movie you won't feel crappy paying full price for.

Luke Wilson and Kate Beckensale ( perfect cast ) play a couple who check into a motel after a long drive,the rest is an intense ride That will glue you eyes to the screen.I see the movie as a tribute to the 70's thriller/horror/action ( home invasion, psychotic killer type of films )You can see this right from the opening credits. There are moments where Vacancy could go bad and disappointing ( I was actually waiting for it )but it did not ( a bit on the ending being cliché, but I was OK to give it a pass ).WELL DIRECTED, WELL CAST, AND WELL SHOT.

The theater was packed more so than usual and why not as Vacancy was a very entertaining thrillride.Kate Beckinsale is great in her first Horror film and Luke Wilson is great in pretty much his first serious role as these two squabbling spouses can feed off of each others talent.Remember when we had nothing but slasher movies being intentionally funny, you know the days where Jason X, Wrong Turn, Scream, Freddy vs Jason, and I Know What You Did Last Summer well that is slowly coming to an end as Vacancy aligns itself with Saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Hills Have Eyes as a great serious slasher that doesn't have ridiculous humour or one liners.Vacancy has a simple enough storyline that has indeed been done before but the best thing about it is that unlike so many other slasher movies this one has a lot of character development as these characters aren't the typical teenager or cop whose name you don't remember or care about you know damn well who the Fox couple is, why they're having problems, and you end up rooting for them to survive.To say Vacancy is scary is a bit of a stretch but to say Vacancy is a great thriller would be about accurate.The storyline progresses at a fast pace but none of it is half @$$ed or out of nowhere everything makes sense in the end.Vacanc's pacing gets you're adrenaline pumping in the same way that any good quality thriller does.Vacancy has has a much more realistic and believable story as you know full well these killers are everyday people they aren't a monstrous man with a flesh disease like in Texas Chainsaw or House Of Wax and it's not some campy undead serial killer like Freddy Krueger or Jason Vorhees.I think what added to the effect of the creepy atmosphere was having pretty much the whole film take place at night as it really gave you a cold feeling that something was lurking out their.Again my only complaints are that the dialogue is sometimes not well delivered, the plot is at times over the top, and it borrows a lot of elements from Psycho and Saw.

The Good -Overall good acting -Doesn't rely solely on gore or jump scares -Good amount of character development -Excellent pace that keeps the adrenaline pumping

The Bad -Some bad line delivery -Plot tends to get a little over the top -Various horror clichés eg. the car breaks down

Vacancy fmovies. "Vacancy" is a suspenseful horror shocker that follows a young disputing couple on their way home from an anniversary party, Amy and David Fox (Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson), who have just recently lost a child and are about to enter a divorce. The bickering couple end up stranded outside a small service station in the middle of nowhere, and decide to to check into the Pinewood motel, a cheap little place for them to spend the night until they can get help the next morning. The quirky desk clerk gives them their room, and they find it to be a complete dump. But their dingy motel room is the least of their problems, when they find videotapes of homemade snuff movies where previous guests were filmed as they were brutally murdered. With a team of masked killers surrounding the entire motel, and every area under surveillance, Amy and David find themselves in a life-or-death struggle as they try and survive through the night.

If the plot summary for this movie sounds like something that interests you, you will more than likely enjoy this suspenseful horror flick. I went into "Vacancy" with pretty average expectations - I wasn't that wild about this movie when I'd first heard about it, but it sounded interesting enough so I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did. Unlike the vast majority of the horror junk that gets released lately, this film actually boasts an original and solidly-constructed premise. Take some elements from Hitchock's "Psycho" (was it just me, or were those opening credits played over with the Bernard Herrman-like score a direct reference to Hitchcock?), throw in some aspects from the "Saw" series, and tie things together in a tense little package, and you get "Vacancy". I was literally on the edge of my seat throughout almost the entire film, and found not one dull moment. Suspense and tension are the real kickers in this movie, and it is done very well. Lots of moody camera angles and some genuinely frightening sequences (take the underground cave scenes for example) add to the tense nature.

Our lead performers are Beckinsale and Wilson, both of whom turn in some great performances. Wilson plays the "husband hero" and Beckinsale is the "damsel in distress-gone fighting machine", and both capture this effectively. Their acting is believable, and I think that the writing has something to do with it as well, because their characters are written really well. They're not your typical genre morons who drop to the floor when the killer approaches, they are much more real. They make good decisions and the right moves, which makes them much more credible and realistic, winning over the audiences sympathy rather easily. There were some heart-pumping fight sequences as well between the heroes and the villains, which were well executed and had you rooting for Beckinsale and Wilson. The ending was a little uneven I have to admit, but compared to the tense hour and twenty-five minutes before it, it doesn't come close to bringing the movie down.

Overall, "Vacancy" is an original horror flick that is heavy on suspense, while not so heavy on bloodshed. The claustrophobic atmosphere and the tense build up in this movie is it's real charm, and it will have you on the edge of your seat, anxious to see what will happen next. It's the way a thriller should be done, and makes for an enjoyable late-night fright fest. Exceeded my expectations and went beyond. 9/10.

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.

Vacancy has Alfred Hitchcock's finger prints smeared all over it, in fact at several times, especially the quite nifty looking opening credits, seems a lot like a homage to the great horror maestro himself. Its true, that even many years after Hitchcok finished making movies, that his movie still stay in memory for longer than most of the recent Hollywood horror that has arrived. The Birds and Psycho are far more memorable than the House of Wax remake or The Reaping. Hitchcock's movies worked because he had great characterisation and also a great sense of atmosphere, you could sit and watch a Hitchcock movie and be terrified for half an hour before anything scary actually happens. The sense of foreboding and incredibly skilfully done atmosphere did that to an audience. Nowadays we get cheap jump out of your seat scares and torture scenes designed to sicken. Initially my thoughts towards seeing Vacancy were not great, the trailer looked alright, but my guess was it would just be another lame, modern slasher flick. So what a great surprise to say that Vacancy is a good little movie that actually has some genuine scares in it. The movie isn't gory, nor is it jumpy, the movie is unsettling and creepy. Now this is what a true horror movie should do in my eyes, if a movie can unsettle without resorting to jump scares then it is a success. Vacncay pulls this off, well it pulls this off for a majority of the time. The movie is an absolute success until the ending, at the ending it seems to flounder a bit and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. But everything up until the ending is a joy to watch.

What surprised me most about Vacancy has to be the actual acting. When I saw the trailer and saw that Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson were the leading couple I nearly burst out laughing. For starters Luke Wilson is a comedy man, he's designed to make funny movies. Well when I say funny movies I mean if he has the right material as just recently I've found him as unfunny as can be. Kate Beckinsale just doesn't seem the type to be in a horror movie. But its this bizarre casting that pays off so well. Luke Wilson really proves himself in this movie, to the extent I want him to focus more on a serious acting career, he seems to be more at home here than he has in years with his comedy movies. Kate Beckinsale also proves herself admirably. The pair are believable, and you actually start to care for them. Wishing that they will escape the nightmare, hoping that they find a way out. Their performances are so much different from the usual stupid teenagers we see in horror movies today, its refreshing to see adults in this horrific situation. The villains of the movie are also quite menacing for the majority of the time, the hotel manager played by Frank Whaley is a good character. He's not on screen too often, but he does play a creepy little man very well.

So what of the scares then? Well as I've said the movie is at times pretty scary. Not for the first twenty minutes mind you, that is dedicated for set up and too increase the atmosphere. Those scenes work very well and once again its refreshing to see genuine character development in a horror movie, made better by the fact the two leads are great. However, the minute the couple enter the hotel room the focus shifts. Bangings on the wall and doors begin, the phone rings with nobody on the other end. From that point onwards the movie gets terrifying, the bangings on the wall really starts to creep you out at one point. Once the big bad secret about the motel