Movie Review: Vacancy

It all starts really innocently, as does any thriller of this type. An upper middle class couple are driving down some dark deserted road in the middle of nowhere in their quaint little European car. They are on this road because awhile back while the wife was sleeping soundly in the passenger seat , there was a terrible traffic jam on the interstate and the husband, being a typical man decided he saw a 'shortcut' on the map.

All of a sudden out of nowhere a small furry creature jumps out in front of the car and...... screech, skid, sputter-sputter-- the car dies. The wife of course is rather irritated at this point with the husband for taking the shortcut to begin with and also for swerving to avoid what amounts to large rodent thus nearly killing them in order to save the life of some small furry creature. Now they get the car up and limping. They make to a rickety run down gas station only to find the attendant has long since gone home (probably some time in the early 70's). Then suddenly there it is, the savior, the motel in the middle of nowhere. The one story drive up rat- hole looking motel. You know the one. The outside hasn't been updated since before the Kennedy assassination. Then there's the night clerk, of course he is the typical innocent looking nerdy guy that's just a little bit slow, not quite retarded but getting close. OK so now they have a room, place to sleep for the night. The room looks like it hasn't seen a cleaning crew since before Regan was President, of course the T.V. gets absolutely zero reception. They soon see that there is a V.C.R. and several 'home movies. They decide that they would like to unwind a little bit before catching a little shut eye. They pop in one of the cassettes and from there things go really sideways. As the night continues on it seems that anyone that might be able to help this couple and save them from a fate worse than death is in on the game. Eventually the law makes its way out there, but that doesn't go over real well either.

The movie was one of the better thrillers I've seen. It offers an excellent plot line and decent back story for the main characters. It isn't terribly gory but it has enough gore to keep true afficionados interested. Overall the film was pretty decent, but in my opinion it will never live up to the standard set by Norman Bates and Psycho.