Review of Vacancy (1999) by Cameron E — 03 Sep 2012

Saw this movie on tv thankfully. this was a pretty poor effort at horror. ok so they got good looking production design(a motel, can't be that hard right?) and the acting by Luke Wilson is decent. But how Frank Whaley didn't get the Razzie award in 2007 for worst villain performance, I don't know. Every time he came on screen, I had to internally chuckle and roll my eyes. I guess he never heard of subtlety.

The plot is also paper thin, and when you try and reason most of the actions of the characters, it's rather idiotic. I sense a seriously underwritten script with as little action and sense of place, as possible.

This is a horror movie, but it was never scary. I don't know if that was the intention of director Nimród Antal, to make it as less scary as possible, but he succeeded. low key lighting, flashing neon lights, spotty lights and fuzzy tv screens- all elements of horror, right? But not once did I feel scared. I really don't like Kate Beckinsale, she's proved time and time again, she's a weak actress and is only capable of showing 3-4 ranges of emotions. The audience needed to channel emotion and terror through her, but she could hardly do it.

If you read the concept, you think- hey it's a decent idea. But when you see it on the screen, it plays out like a really bad cable movie with a college play budget. There's little to no suspense in this film, and the video/tv segments were more comical and unconvincing than terrifying. The finale is seemingly non existent, and the paper thin antagonists in this movie never once, makes me scared for the main characters.