Vacancy is an enjoyable, pleasingly old-fashioned thriller with strong performances and some expertly handled suspense sequences. Recommended.
Vacancy (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:117
Fresh:64
Rotten:53
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: Vacancy's restraint with gore is commendable, the thin characters and B-movie cliches less so.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for brutal violence and terror, brief nudity and language.
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:15-06-2007
Synopsis: This riveting thriller features Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a couple whose car breaks down, stranding them at a very dangerous hotel. Director Nimrod Antal carefully builds the suspense as... This riveting thriller features Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a couple whose car breaks down, stranding them at a very dangerous hotel. Director Nimrod Antal carefully builds the suspense as the film gradually leads to horror when the hotel turns out to be a snuff film operation, with cameras everywhere and lots of truly horrific videos of past murders (shot in the same room) lying atop the TV set. The couple needs to think fast before they become the next victims. Beckinsale and Wilson play down their star wattage and get truly involved in their change-of-pace roles, sucking the audience into their situation far deeper than one might think possible. Meticulous use of the tawdry, low-rent motel setting--lots of rotted wood, stained wallpaper, and ugly sofas--provides a realistic sense of space. Intelligently crafted and unfolding practically in real time, VACANCY is edge-of-the-seat all the way. Other strong points are the punchy score from Paul Haslinger, a PSYCHO-ish credit sequence, a creepy Frank Whaley as the hotel clerk, and lots of references to films like TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. Thanks to all this care and attention, the scares linger longer than you might expect, so don't watch it alone. [More]
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry
Director: Nimrod Antal
Director: Nimrod Antal
Screenwriter: Mark L. Smith
Producer: Hal Lieberman
Composer: Paul Haslinger
Studio: Screen Gems
Reviews for Vacancy
This more than slightly familiar scenario doesn't give the principals much scope for acting.
Vacancy’s an audience divider – a predictable yet occasionally classy film. Depending on your mood it’s an efficient exercise in popcorn frights, or a cynical B-movie...
director Nimrod Antal settles for a more generic horror-ride as the imperatives of stalk-and-escape take hold. For a while, though, this is first-rate second-hand material.
Terrific turns by all make this a tense, if slightly predictable, treat for terror fans.
With shades of Psycho and The Birds, Vacancy sure isn’t up there with The Master’s finest work but, given that we haven’t had a decent horror all year, it’s a pleasantly creepy surprise.
Kit out the Bates Motel with surveillance cameras, replace Anthony Perkins with the ineffectual Frank Whaley, and you'd have the location for this irritatingly cheapjack snuff-horror thriller, starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a depressed couple
well, however much I wanted to love it, the same old sorts of things happen, and the rigorous plausibility and consistency on which everything depends are thrown away.
An effective assembly of familiar chills diminished by its unfortunate mainstream feints.
This stripped-down chiller has some decent jump-frights, but a dearth of memorable moments.
An unpleasant and hardly entertaining creepy horror road movie that comes up as vacant as an empty room.
[Director Nimrod] Antal does such a good job that you almost overlook the absurdities built into the screenplay.
Vacancy is a no-nonsense, no ambition thriller, but sometimes that's more than enough to please.
All things considered, not half bad. Indeed, it's much less than half bad.
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