Vacancy (DVD)

...The Cast & Crew of Vacancy - This is quite a good documentary, where the main actors, Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale and Frank Whaley, as well as the director, Nimrod Antal and a couple of other crew members, talk about the movie. The actors discuss what they liked about the script and what they thought of the movie and the director talks about his view on the story and what he hopes others take away from it and so on. He talks about how he sees it ...
...hmv.co.uk etc.

Vacancy is worth a watch, even if only to see Luke in a different kind of a movie role, though it isn't without its minor flaws, so I recommend it and rate it as good but not excellent.

I hope this review helps you decide if this movie/DVD would interest you or not, thanks for reading my review!  ... more

- Cast (non-actors, the main actors are mentioned in rest of review) -

Written by - Mark L Smith
Directed by - Nimrod Antal
Produced by - Hal Lieberman
Executive Producers - Glenn S. Gainor, Stacey Kolker Cramer, Brian Paschal
Production Designer - Jon Gary Steele
Director of Photography - Andrzej Sekula

- Film Background & Story -

This movie stars Luke Wilson (this being a change in role for Luke who is known for usually only acting in comedies and some light dramas) and Kate Beckinsale as a soon to be divorced couple who end up lost in the middle of the night with their car running out of gas (petrol).

Luckily for them (or so they think) they spot a gas station but its closed, though a mechanic spots them and tries to help guide them to the nearest station. Unfortunately for them, the car runs out of gas before they reach there and so reluctantly they decide to walk back to the gas station to see if the mechanic is still around and might be able to help them get in contact with a station who might come out to fill the car or to find somewhere nearby to stay. As it happens, there's a motel just next to the gas station - perfect, they can stay there for the night and get it all sorted the next day, right? Unfortunately, this is a bad mistake for the couple, as they soon find out, when things take a decidedly spooky turn.

Infact to start with its rather strange, as they hear screams from the behind reception and Amy decides she's not happy at all, though the receptionist/manager Mason (played by Frank Whaley) soon comes out and explains that he had just been watching a video because basically 'there's nothing else to do around here' and he offers to help David, offering them a room and telling them that their the only people in the motel. They agree to take a room and while it looks pretty shabby, they start to settle down for the night. However, it isn't long before someone knocks on the door (there's no one there(!) and then bangs are heard on the side wall. David tries to shout through to the room next door to ask them to keep the noise down but there's no answer. This is, of course, particularly creepy considering they'd been told that their the only people in the motel at that time. So David decides to go back to the reception in a huff and demand that the receptionist/manager does something to make the room next door keep the noise down, so they can get a decent nights sleep.

He agrees to take a look at the room next door, saying its probably some drunk teenagers that have broken in or something and so David returns to the room. It isn't long before he decides to try out the TV and he isn't much impressed when it turns out that there's no signal/reception for any of the channels. He spots that there are some blank videos sitting on top/around the TV, so he tries one of them to see whats on it. At first he presumes they are horror movies, where the videos show people in a room being assaulted and killed, this not being quite to his taste he decides to try another video, but that shows basically the same thing. The more he watches, the more he studies the room shown in the tape and as he compares it to the room their in, the penny suddenly drops... these videos are showing residents in the motel, in that same exact room, being assaulted and killed! everything in the room in the videos is the same as the room their in... so they can only presume that their going to suffer the same fate, if they don't get away and quick!

Of course the movie then follows the couple as they try many different ways to get out of the motel, many of which being unsuccessful. At first they try to quietly run away and David tries to make a call from a phone booth just outside the motel but someone from inside the motel is listening 'you'll have to be more clever than that if your going to survive' or something similar is said at the end of the line... cars try to run him down, masked strangers attempt to grab them, all sorts! so its all about their efforts to try and escape without being watched, which is difficult when the videos in the room prove that there are many, many cameras present all over the motel.

- What elements are contained in this movie? -

This is (pretty obviously) a very tense thriller, its very claustrophobic too. It kept my attention well, at quite a few points your on edge wondering if they can get away with the current escape attempt and at any moment they could be caught, so it is a pretty thrilling movie from that point of view. Its more suspenseful and I feel there's been alot more emphasis on the atmosphere it creastes and the sort of psychological side to it than any particularly gory/horror aspect. Luckily for people like me who really aren't keen on movies like Hostel and Saw, it doesn't rely on, as I say, gore on mass or massively strong violence and blood and guts to work, no there isn't so much of that in this movie and like I say its more about the tense, claustrophobic atmosphere, thats whats scary about this movie. In saying that, im not sure I'd really describe it as being an utterly scary movie as such though I do think it works pretty well as a thriller.

- Classification -

This movie/DVD is rated 15, as there's little gore it doesn't have the higher 18 rate certificate. It has a 15 certificate due to the 'sustained terrorisation' as its worded on the back of the DVD box, which is the main theme of the movie and I suppose it could disturb some, I certainly wouldn't recommend young children watch this, of course. Another reason for the 15 certificate is the strong violence, which is present. I wouldn't say there's a massive amount of violence and I know ive mentioned that there isn't much if any gore but it is true to say that some violence is present, as would be pretty hard to avoid, given the story. Luckily the cameras do look away at the worst times though. It may also be worth mentioning that David does swear quite heavily at the start of the movie, so I presume the rating is also because of strong language used (though that isn't mentioned on the back of the DVD box).

- The good points -

Its a pretty good movie for the basic storyline, I thought that the storyline was quite interesting and it didn't feel like the sort of story thats been overly used and re-used, so I thought that worked ok and also the two main actors, Luke and Kate, I felt did very well in this, their performances were good. They both showed alot of emotions and you could really see their fright, worry and so on, all their emotions were well acted. It was interesting to see how Luke dealt with whats really a different kind of genre to appear in but I thought he was a good actor to choose for the character/role, they were both pretty believable. The best thing about the movie is how well the atmosphere is portrayed, I think you'd be hard to watch this without feeling tense and on edge, at least a few times. Its almost kind of Hitchcock-ian, as its described during the documentary thats present on the DVD (see below). Its not about the gore and blood and guts but presenting this awful situation that a regular couple end up being in, a situation that isnt entirely so far away from being the truth (ie this could actually happen in real life) and thats pretty frightening in itself.

- The bad points -

However, it does have its flaws too. I felt that some parts of the plot were either predictable (though I have no real problem with the ending, I gather from other reviews etc. that others weren't so keen on it but personally I didn't mind, I guess different people may have different opinions!) or just a bit daft, really. It doesn't take away from the atmosphere but some details, if you think about it, seem a bit strange. For example, as a viewer who knows even just the basics of what the movie about, it'll be obvious when they hear the screams when first entering the motel and the manager comes out, that he's got something to do with it and also, why did they leave the snuff tapes by the TV? just so that they'd find them and would know to try and get out, whereas if you watch the videos, there's no indication that the other couples or people who had stayed in the room, had any idea what was going to happen to them. I guess the manager Mason was just a bit forgetful and happened to leave the videos there... yeah, right(!) or maybe he wantd them to watch and figure it out and would get pleasure from watching them being scared sitting around the room and knowing they'd try to escape? I guess thats why but considering he seems angry and everyone is trying to chase them down during most of the night, it doesn't seem to make a great deal of sense if you think about it.

Also at one point Amy hides in the loft in the room and David keeps looking up and talking to her, though he knows that there are all the cameras in the room and that they'll be able to see and guess where she is, why would he do that? I don't know, I guess by that point in the movie your not thinking too clearly... still... will they make it through the night or not? I'm not saying, you'll have to watch it and find out!

- DVD -

As well as subtitles, which are available in English, Hindi and Italian, the DVD comes with a few special features, as you'd probably expect. These are:-

* Alternate opening sequence - not much can be said about this really, it uses one of the latter sequences of the movie and at the end focuses in on the couples car license plate, which is where the movies originally starts from, focussing on the license plate

* The Cast & Crew of Vacancy - This is quite a good documentary, where the main actors, Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale and Frank Whaley, as well as the director, Nimrod Antal and a couple of other crew members, talk about the movie. The actors discuss what they liked about the script and what they thought of the movie and the director talks about his view on the story and what he hopes others take away from it and so on. He talks about how he sees it as being quite a sort of Hitchcock-ian movie, which I agree with, as I've already mentioned this above. It talks about some technical elements too such as the lighting and photography and how it was done to help create the tense, claustrophobic atmosphere.

The director talks of how they filmed the snuff films in one day and how it was done in such a way so that the viewer is given the main gist of what happens, without making it too gory and without making it too over the top, visually. He also talks about the different sets used to create the motel 'lot'.

The documentary is a decent length, at just over 20 minutes long.

* Extended Snuff Films - Here you can view whats basically/presumably the videos that are seen by the TV in the movie. This is the footage of all the past, unfortunate people who stayed in the motel room and weren't aware of their fate, people who didn't manage to get away before the masked strangers entered and assaulted then killed them. It is quite disturbing in a way, as it should be! and there are quite alot of screams, it looks pretty realistic and is pretty chilling stuff, thankfully we don't have to see it all in too much detail, though there is enough detail to make it rather disturbing. One middle aged man is shown being hung, others are pinned down and stabbed. These 'videos' are shown in a fairly grainy way, with static/snowing covering the screen at times, to shield your view of what would have been probably even more horrific scenes, when the people were finally 'done in', presumably. Its quite quick to cut from one 'video' to another, the whole lot go on for about 20 minutes too.

* Raccoon Encounter - This relates to a scene pretty early on in the movie, when David has to swerve his car because he spots a raccoon in the road. This is basically just an extension on that scene, where you see, or more hear, more dialogue. One thing that this would have made clear, if the extended scene were used in the movie, is that the couple had just lost a child, which isn't made very clear until the end of the film, I felt, so its a shame they cut this scene down, though otherwise its really a bit random and not very much to do with the movie, as its before they went to the motel etc.

- Official Website -

http://www.sony.com/Vacancy

The site offers some clips from the movie, that gives you an idea of what the movie is like. Also if you click on 'enter site', a separate window opens and you can access a gallery, some downloads (wallpapers and screensavers/icons) and video clips there too, along with a game, called 'Vacancy Escape', where you play someone who's staying in a room for the night at that motel and who has learnt the motels secret and has to escape, of course.

However it is quite a fancy site and I wouldn't recommend trying to load if if you have a slow connection ie a dial up modem connection, as its flash based, just to warn you.

- Conclusions-

I thought that this film did really well at creating a tense, sinister and claustrophobc atmosphere and it works well as a kind of chilling urban legend type thriller/horror, though don't expect to see much in the way of explicit violence, its not about that.

As a basic thriller, it works pretty well and both Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale do well as Amy and David Fox. You really get pulled in to the movie and hope right the way through that they will somehow be able to escape. It may be a little slow to start with, there's alot of dialogue as their driving in the night before they even reach the gas station, but it does help to give you an idea about the characters and their relationship. Once the main story gets started, your hooked and want to see what the outcome is going to be.

Its true to say that this isn't a perfect movie. As ive already said, there are some aspects that may make you wonder, why did s/he do that or why would that be the case? but all the same, its all fairly small things and I didn't feel like any of these things really took away from the overall effect that the movie had. It can still be taken pretty seriously and it still works well as a thriller, I thought, just don't expect a movie that has no plot holes and that can be analysed and makes total sense, im sure there are plenty of others that just the same!

Overall, this is a good movie. If your looking for an edge of your seat, chilling psychological thriller, I would recommend this. I would say that if your wanting something to watch as a bit of a spooky night in, then this could do the job. Actually I think its a shame there aren't more movies that use the atmosphere thats present here, with the lack of gores and blood and guts that I try to stay away from, this was just fine for me, I wasn't grossed out by gore but I was sufficiently sucked in by the tense and chilling atmosphere of the movie and kept interested to find out what would happen, throughout the movie.

Some people may be unhappy with the ending of the movie, though I won't spoil the movie by saying what it is, others may not be. I wasn't unhappy with it really, it may be seen as being a bit predictable possibly but it isn't clear until the very end quite what happens, as it should be, I believe... apart from the part when they walk into the motel and hear the screams and the manager explains that he's just been watching a movie, oh so of course its fine, hmmm - do you believe that? that is a pretty predictable aspect of it but still, what happens when and do they manage to walk away or survive at all?

If this interests you and the genre and atmosphere I've described sounds like something you'd enjoy for a spooky night in with family and/or friends perhaps then I'd say give it a try. This isn't the type of movie that I would think you'd want to watch too often, as once you've seen it, (obviously) you know what happens, so perhaps buying the DVD isn't worth it. Certainly be wary of price, I really wanted to see it and ended up buying it from Sainsburys as it was the only local shop that had it in stock but the price of £13.97 was the scariest thing! and thats before ive put the DVD on! (lol) definately check online, there are already copies being sold on Ebay and of course there's always Amazon, Play.com hmv.co.uk etc.

Vacancy is worth a watch, even if only to see Luke in a different kind of a movie role, though it isn't without its minor flaws, so I recommend it and rate it as good but not excellent.

I hope this review helps you decide if this movie/DVD would interest you or not, thanks for reading my review! 

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