Review of Motel Hell (1980) by Bryan G — 30 Oct 2009

Kevin Connor's 1980 cult horror film Motel Hell is described as a satire of modern horror films such as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (at least according to its Wikipedia page). On one level I can see how this film is a satire, because it does seem to be having fun with its premise and trying not to be too serious of a film. Unfortunately the film does take itself seriously at certain moments, and it's the film's poor juggling of its funny and dark moments where Motel Hell really lost me.

I remember seeing this one when I was younger, and it contained a scene that freaked me out greatly. Seeing it once again, I still think the human garden that Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) have is a great horror image, and would rank among my favorite horror movie moments. There is something about seeing all of these people buried up to their heads, and not being able to speak (because their vocal cords have been slit) so they are reduced to making hideous gargling noises instead that still is a chilling scene to watch for me.

I wish that Motel Hell would have remained a darker film, instead of adding in all of its humorous moments. Scenes like the one with the sex perverts that show up aren't as funny as I imagine the writers thought it to be. And it is moments like this that hurt the film's serious edge, which could have made for a decent horror flick. I know it would have been close to becoming a rip-off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I think I would have been fine with that instead of what Motel Hell turned out to be.

Both Vincent and Ida were decent characters, and Calhoun and Parsons' acting wasn't too bad (though not really that impressive either). I didn't care for the "survivor girl" of the film, Terry (Nina Axelrod), especially how she is thrown into the story. She is riding on a motorcycle with her boyfriend when it crashes, due to Vincent shooting the front tire out. Her boyfriend is killed, though she doesn't know Vincent had anything to do with it, and she quickly and easily assumes life on Vincent's farm. This was too easy of a transition for her, so from there I had a hard time believing this character.

About the only things that I liked about this film, other than the human garden, was the zombie-like ending that Motel Hell has and seeing John Ratzenberger play a small role as a member of a rock group that has the misfortune of running into Vincent. Motel Hell isn't a very fun horror film, and makes more mistakes than memorable efforts at spoofing the state of horror at the time it was made. Motel Hell is going to be one of those horror films that fans of the genre are really going to love, or absolutely hate.