Vacancy Review

by Jonathan Moya (jjmoya1955 AT yahoo DOT com)
September 2nd, 2007

In Vacancy Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale (the reigning queen of The Underworld series) get some much needed marriage therapy when they spend the last night before the official divorce in a Bates motel where the free in-room movie is a snuff film that tries to feature them. Nimrod Antal (the director of Kontroll a moody thriller set entirely in the Hungarian underground subway) like a scientist engaged in a rat labyrinth study, knows his way through the maze of alienation, claustrophobia and terror that Mark L. Smith's screenplay creates. In the slow unfolding opening scenes that take place mostly within the confines of David and Amy Fox's small car, the fidgeting, the bickering and recriminations about blame for their failing marriage and dead son are intercut with shots of them seemingly talking alone in the speeding dark, the roof almost smashing down on top of their heads. Clearly, this is a lost couple caught in the seat of their own individual sorrow and pain yet unable to break away from the mutual comfort that grief provides. Antal quickly and efficiently underlines the psychology of these two, if tested, that can still fight for each other. David and Amy are a lot more intelligent than the average horror movie victims (who die in a queasy and brutal series of dicers projected from their room VCR), and in a neat twist that makes Vacancy a small guilty pleasure, David really knows how to watch a film. So, when the cameras are discovered and the mayhem begins this couple has a sensible escape plan that keeps them just barely ahead of the murderous Mason (an overheated performance by Frank Whaley) , the front desk manager with an auteur streak, and his masked assassins. The delight of watching David and Amy crawling through the gangs secret underground tunnels, attic crawl spaces and booby hatches is only mildly marred by the stupidity of Mason's gang-- even though Frank Whaley does a good slow burn. The moral of all this is: "Watch a movie, really watch a movie, it just might save your life." Vacancy gets a B.

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