They're Watching (Vacancy (DVD))

Member Name: JayHall1991

Product:	Vacancy (DVD)
Date:	01/09/08 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scary, Effective, tense, Good Performances

Disadvantages: Annoyingly Stupid Character

Amy and David are having troubles in their marriage; they can't seem to agree on anything and things they used to love about each other have become annoying. So when David takes a wrong turn and moves off the interstate leaving them in the middle on no-where with a car that is slowly breaking down, Amy is understandable irritated. They are forced to pull up on the side of the road and walk to shelter where they can wait for an AA service. They find shelter in the form of a decapitated old Motel - it's dirty and the manager is a bit strange but its shelter from the elements. However, when they decide to put the television on and choose one of the tapes in the room they make a horrifying discovery - hours of footage of horrific and macabre real-life murders, all happening in the 'honey-moon suite'. What that banging at the door?

Vacancy is a relentless, effective and lean horror movie that gets the nerves jangling, keeps the frights coming and racks up the tension to respectable levels. It's efficiently directed, making the simple premise feel focused, and is bolstered by three really good performances and tight-wire pacing. It treads familiar ground and doesn't offer anything particularly new to the genre - but it has some novel ways of getting you on the edge of your seat and has some genuinely exciting fight sequences. It bravely bypasses the modern trend of shoving as much gore down your throat as possible and adopts a hauntingly old-fashioned visual style that makes things seem scarier than they probably are. It doesn't follow any logic and is pretty implausible throughout but it is still an enjoyable and scary bit of thrilling fun.

The best thing about Vacancy is its simplicity; it rarely strays from its initial premise and doesn't get bogged down with plot twists or back stories (although there is some nice character development thrown in). This stripped down quality allows the action to get started really quickly and adds to a claustrophobic sensibility which makes the frights seem much more intense and the threat more immediate. It's also impressively paced - fast enough to keep you engaged but slow enough to make sure that the tension is rammed to the absolute hilt. The first half is extremely tense; nothing is explained and no-bodies motives are clear and when the threat eventually arises it is done in a stylish and nerve-wracking manner. There are definite shades of Hitchcock in the films set-up but once the true action starts it pushes the pedal to the metal and zooms off at break-neck speed which zaps some of the tension but ramps up the fun.

Vacancy is fairly scary - there are definitely enough jumpy moments, the sustained threat is fairly intense and there are a few fun flourishes that raise goosebumps. The villains are genuinely frightening with their bare, emotionless masks and hefty, swift movements and the dirty, claustrophobic setting adds to the overall dread. This is helped by a pleasing lack of bore; very little blood is actually shown and the violence is more implied, making it infinitely more terrifying. The videotape motif is extremely effective (the camera often switches between the action and the 'snuff movies') bringing a sort of primal fear to the forefront and adding terrifying background noise to every scene. The fight sequences (especially those involving Kate Beckinsale) are all extremely tightly choreographed and intense and the score is a scary mix of old-Hitchcockian strings and more modern sounds. The director is clever enough to keep things hidden from the audience (you hardly ever see the villains) and by making the lead characters relatable their plight becomes all the more affecting.

That being said Vacancy does ask the audience to suspend their disbelief a little too much, there are more than a few implausibility's and the lead characters stupid behaviour can get a little tedious. There are a few moments that simply don't make any sense and the sheer strength of the villains seems a little ridiculous - they seem to be able to take a lot more blows than the 'normal people'. The beginning has been done before and feels a little hokey here (car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, check into a deserted motel - yeah, right) as it isn't done with any sense of irony and the relationship between Amy and David feels a bit underdeveloped. It's refreshing to see a slasher with two well developed-adult characters, an aspect which gives the film some poignancy, but their sheer dim-wittedness when faced with a potential threat is infuriating. They make very little attempt to arm themselves, seem to walk into dangerous situations and never make any real attempts to get out of the motel. It really harms the credibility of the film (although it would be a fairly short film if the characters did get their acts together - the villains are pretty stupid) along with the countless clichés (no phone signal etc, etc, etc) that are sprinkled throughout.

Luke Wilson does his best, putting in a suitably frantic and terrified performance. He is good at looking scared and adds a sense of realism to his character and his relationship with Amy whilst portraying the hopelessness of the situation well. He is a little irritating and doesn't hold much of a screen presence but he does his best and fleshes out the more emotional elements of the screenplay nicely. Kate Beckinsale is pretty much the same, she acts very frightened and frantic a lot of the time and then she embodies the strength of her character towards the end. She is a little whiney in the beginning but again handles the emotional sequences with passion and she seems to be very adept at fighting. Although her transformation from hard faced and mean to forgiving feels a little contrived. But, in the end, Frank Whaley steals the show with his weird, scary, unsettling and inventive performances as Mason - a man with more than a little to hide. He channels Anthony Perkins with a lot of vigour (or though he doesn't have the material to be nearly as horrifying) and develops a sort of twitchy, erratic quality which is quite haunting.

Vacancy's screenplay does a fairly good job of keeping the tension and scares up - showing tight plotting; some fun nods to those that came before it and at least trying to add some sort of emotional connection with the characters. The dialogue seems a little trite throughout, but it never jars from the films horror and the 'snuff movie' premise is extremely unsettling. The film looks like it was made on a higher budget than it was- with great camera work, an effective setting and great lighting that lends the film a shadowy, dark atmosphere.

Overall, Vacancy is much more effective than you would probably expect -it's creepy and intense with fun Hitchcock overtones and some genuinely jumpy moments. It benefits from a simple set up and sparse direction that lets the horror shine through and despite a few stupid leaps in plausibility, it manages to do its job well.

Summary: a tense and fun horror/thriller