Product Description

When David (Luke Wilson) and Amy Fox's (Kate Beckinsale) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to spend the night at the only motel around, with only the TV to entertain them... until they discover that the low-budget slasher videos they find in their room were all filmed in the very room they're sitting in. With hidden cameras now aimed at them... trapping them in rooms, crawlspaces, underground tunnels... and filming their every move, David and Amy must struggle to get out alive before they end up the next victims on tape.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11954 in DVD
• Brand: BECKINSALE,KATE
• Released on: 2007-08-14
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.com

A confined setting is a useful tool for thriller-makers, and Vacancy is definitely boxed in: a rundown motel way, way off the Interstate, the kind of place where unsuspecting movie characters go to get stabbed to death in the shower. If Vacancy doesn't quite live up to its Hitchcockian forbears, at least it provides 80 minutes of well-designed mayhem. You know somebody's paying attention just from the opening credits, a clever vortex with pounding music by Paul Haslinger. Then we meet unhappy couple Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, driving along in the dark and forced to stay at the Pinewood Motel after a car breakdown. There's a night man (Frank Whaley, decadent) in the tradition of Dennis Weaver's Touch of Evil gargoyle, but the real mess of trouble is waiting in room number 4. Director Nimrod Antal, who scored a stylish international hit with the Hungarian thriller Kontroll, squeezes maximum juice out of the Route 66 atmosphere of the motel, although the movie doesn't get under your skin the way Kontroll did. Wilson and Beckinsale are a little too marquee-namish for this kind of heavy-breathing work, and the script doesn't give them much to play with. But hey, it's not that kind of movie. Where it really belongs is on the top half of a drive-in double bill, or maybe as a nightmare-scenario TV movie from the Seventies. Either way, it works. --Robert Horton

Stills from Vacancy (click for larger image)

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Customer Reviews

I didn't see some of the creepiest parts coming...scared me!
If you've seen every horror movie out there, maybe this one won't do anything for you. It definitely kept me watching for these reasons:

1. The couple, Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, are having marital troubles. This is a nice twist on the formulaic "couple is in love, has sex, gets killed" theme. You won't find that here.

2. They end up in a really run-down motel run by a truly whacky guy.

3. Things get very frightening and it isn't the usual slasher flick. There are some nice twists and turns here...well, maybe not nice..but definitely riveting.

4. I was surprised several times and screamed my head off. You don't really want me to reveal much more, do you? If you're looking for a horror film, I assume you want to know if you're likely to get scared silly. Based on my reaction, I'd say yes. I also wanted to know how this was going to affect this couple's marriage. I mean, stick two estranged people in a motel with a psycho and see how that changes their perspective...

I do have to add that this isn't the BEST horror movie I've ever seen but it does the job.

Expect modest adult thrills--then sit back for a treat
As an adult horror/thriller film viewer for *&^% decades, I am disappointed in most everything that comes out these days. VACANCY is a pleasant surprise, but I think one's expectations need to be modest. Also, the film requires a mature, savvy viewer who is tired of teenagers getting in trouble and being stupid, then heroic, then stupidly heroic. Adult thrills done with an aesthetic sensibility and yet delivering something palpable and strong are hard to come by these days. If you agree, catch VACANCY. (Also, watch the alternative opening under special features--hard to believe they shot this and had the integrity and audacity not to use it.)

Atmospheric with Some Creepy Moments But Lacks Originality
After their car breaks down somewhere off the highway at midnight, a young (and bickering) married couple Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson check into an old motel. When they think they are the only guests staying there that night, strange things start to happen, including some banging noises from the next room.

With its nice opening title back and score that strongly remind us of Hitchcock, "Vacancy" is an old-fashioned thriller that does not rely on gores to raise its tension. That works to some extent with the effective performances from the leads and atmospheric photography by Andrzej Sekula. Hungarian director Nimród Antal ("Kontroll") manages to make us jump with several scary moments at first, but the film's tension slowly vanishes as the story unfolds.

For what "Vacancy" shows remains (for me) very familiar. The story here belongs to the territory of urban legends including disturbing images recorded on old VCRs, but slick as it is, the film fails to show a newer angle to tell this old story told in the past.

The film's second (and weaker) part suffers from the lack of originality in storytelling, making the whole situation which was so far pretty intriguing, just incredible. I cannot reveal too much about it, but probably you will think as I did when watching these characters making worst choices. "Vacancy" has its moments, but overall just an OK thriller.