This riveting thriller features Wilson and 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. - (Alert)
David and Amy Fox are forced to spend the night in the only motel around after their car breaks down and discover they might be the next victims of a killer who uses their room to film his murders. - (Baker & Taylor)
Video Librarian Reviews
Short and sweet, with nary a frame of superfluous footage, this derivative thriller—which owes as much to Psycho and Touch of Evil as it does to Hostel—wastes no time getting down to business. Returning from their last family function as a couple, soon-to-be-divorced David and Amy Fox (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) become stranded while driving late at night and end up taking refuge at a nearby seedy motel. The creepy clerk (Frank Whaley) gives them his best room—which, David discovers, is outfitted with numerous, badly hidden video cameras. Turns out that somebody has been killing all the guests and making snuff films of the unfortunate victims, and the unwitting couple have just been selected to be the stars of the next production. Director Nimrod Antal, working from a straightforward script by Mark L. Smith, skillfully develops this deceptively simple premise, and even though Vacancy stretches credulity in its pulse-pounding third act, overall it's an effective chiller, with Wilson and Beckinsale appealing in the lead roles, and Whaley shining in his finely calibrated supporting turn. Recommended. (E. Hulse) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2007.