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by Willie Waffle

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Vacancy

I have to admit I was worried when I saw the director’s name was Nimrod.  Luckily, he doesn’t come off like one when you see Vacancy (When your name is Willie Waffle, you are allowed to mock other people’s names.  I live in the glass house, so I will throw stones).

Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale star as David and Amy Fox – a married, bickering couple trying to make it back home in the middle of the night after a family event.  While Amy was sleeping, David decided to get off the interstate to take a short cut, and you just know that means trouble.  You guessed it!  The car ends up breaking down on an isolated stretch of road near a rundown, seedy motel.  They decide to stay for the night, but soon discover the place is a house of horrors.

Will David and Amy be able to escape the people trying to kill them while videotaping it?     

Director Nimrod Antal has made a movie that is OK enough with never being horrible, and never being great.   In some ways, Vacancy is a movie going through the motions.  Writer Mark L. Smith tries to flesh out David and Amy by providing a backstory about their marriage, why they are fighting and decisions they have made before this frightful evening, but none of it is all that important to the movie or understanding the two characters.  It’s like he includes it because he should, rather than because it will improve Vacancy.      

However, Antal shows he can provide some decent scary moments, even if he never builds up to them all that much.  In Vacancy, the action moves along quite quickly without much mystery, intrigue or suspense (or ridiculous twists and turns that make you roll your eyes or extend the movie past its natural ending).  It’s a simple movie about a series of scenes designed to make you jump during that one individual scene, rather than a compilation of moments that crescendo to a massive showdown between David, Amy and the people trying to kill them. 

Beckinsale and Wilson are fine as the heroes/victims, but co-star Frank Whaley, as the creepy motel manager, goes too far over the top to make this work for the movie.  Some of it is the obvious and hideous costuming, which makes him look like a porn star straight out of 1975, but he doesn’t help the cause as he fails to make us comfortable or trusting of the character at any point.  It would be nice if his intentions were more of a mystery, which would make him scarier, and shock the audience when the attack begins, but you know he is trouble the first moment he walks on the screen. 

Vacancy will entertain and frighten when you are watching the movie, but you won’t think much about it once the credits roll.       

2 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4)

Vacancy is rated R for brutal violence and terror, brief nudity and language. 

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