*Andy enjoyed this flick in good company.
Perhaps that's why I'm laughing instead of being scared.
Neh... I don't think so.
Vacancy works by being unbelievably entertaining rather than entertaining by being believably real.
I think it bogs down to your level of threshold for “thrill”, “scare” and “experience” for this one.
Vacancy, the film starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson is very much textbook stuff when we talk about the genre of horror and thriller.
Although nothing really new, the idea remains interesting.
David (Luke Wilson) and Amy (Kate Beckinsale) are driving home one night when the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
Almost conveniently there is a gas station and motel nearby where help can be found.
It'll be futile to think the two of them are going elsewhere.
That is not going to happen.
They will stay at the motel and they will be trapped.
If not then where is the story?
So then the two quarrelsome duos will discover in their creepy “Honeymoon Suite” that a collection of videos featuring gruesome images of violent murder are filmed exactly where they are.
Imagine yourself in their shoes.
I bet you’ll be freaked out too.
The thrill in Vacancy is how David and Amy tries their best to outsmart their captors who are watching from every possible hidden camera if to escape the fate of those seen in the videos.
The scare in Vacancy is how director Nimród Antal uses the textbook stuff of leaving spaces in between scenes for your imagination to enter.
Literally that is what the word “Vacancy” means, a vacant spot for you to fill in.
It is also no wonder that the three psychos, led by motel manager Mason (Frank Whaley) are obsessed about their game.
This out of place motel in the middle of nowhere is awfully lonely.
The scene where the mechanic played by Ethan Embry saying to the couple, “I should pay you for giving me something to do,” tells it best.
The idle mind really is the devil’s workshop.
Vacancy the movie however cannot be described as believable.
Again here is one those films that can be enjoyable only if we take logic away from it.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, how much this movie works is largely dependant on your threshold for “thrill”, “scare” and “experience”.
To me Vacancy is not very scary or thrilling.
Due to it being unbelievable, and based on my experience with the thriller and horror genre, the plot is pretty much laid out for me.
I knew what was going to happen, but it did not stop me from having fun watching the film.
Ever wondered why some people could laugh at the sight of horror on screen?
I found the answer in Vacancy.
It being unreal and sometimes silly is laughable.
I wanted to question its authenticity but gave up because it is not documentary or comparable to the Saw or Hostel franchise.
There’s nothing gruesome in Vacancy, just a simple game of cat and mouse played within an isolated vicinity of a creepy motel.
It is at the very least an entertaining getaway into the darkroom with a big screen.
Those with a higher threshold might beg to differ but I sure had fun watching Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale playing the victims.
Vacancy is not the best of its kind but definitely not the worst.
Have you got time to kill?
Why not fill your vacancy with Vacancy?
Movie Link:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/vacancy/index.html
