VACANCY

US, 2007, 80 minutes, Colour.
Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry.
Directed by Nimrod Antal.

A high fright factor.

Usually, films about people stranded on American back roads in the dark focus on rather unsympathetic 20 somethings who encounter variations on the living dead and spend most of the film being chased and tortured. Vacancy is more than a bit different.

This time the central characters are a married couple (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) who are estranged because of the accidental death of their young son. Tension between them is strong. When the husband takes a side road because of a freeway pile-up and then swerves to avoid a racoon, things go to the worse and worse. They are lost. A man in a garage seems friendly but sabotages their car. They walk back to the isolated motel and are persuaded to stay the night in the best room – with special features.

The rest of this brief film has them terrorised by the mild-mannered, bespectacled manager (Frank Whaley) and his brutal friends who have a small local mini-industry of filming live-action terror.

Director Nimrod Antal (who made the Hungarian film, Control, in the Budapest rail subway) keeps the pace going and immerses the audience in the couple’s fear and their being trapped, sometimes in claustrophobic tunnels under the motel.

Antal sets out to make a scary movie for adults – and succeeds.

1.The success of this horror film? Intended audience adults rather than young adults?

2.The cast, strength of performance? Past films? Appearing in a horror film?

3.The title, motels – and audience memories of Psycho and the Bates motel? A contemporary variation?

4.The countryside, the night, the mountains, the lonely roads? The gas station? The motel? The contrast with the interiors of the motel, the room, the tunnels, the office? The surroundings of the motel? Eerie enough for this kind of horror film? The musical score?

5.David and Amy and their travelling in the car? Their impending divorce? The revelation of the death of their son? The tension between them? Visiting Amy’s family? Amy sleeping, cantankerous? Luke and his driving, taking the short cut? Their being lost?

6.Audiences identifying with the predicament, on the road, isolated, misreading the map? At night? Swerving to miss the racoon? David and his trying to cope with the car? With Amy and her criticism?

7.Finding the mechanic, his pleasant talk, not charging, their giving him the money? Down the road, the wrong directions, the car breaking down, their walking back?

8.The motel, Mason, his appearance? The discussions with him, the letter of the law? His arguing against their leaving, their taking the room?

9.In the room, the television, the violence? After hearing the screams in Mason’s office and his explaining about the video? The discovery that the room in the film was their room? The noise next door, David and his going to complain? The truck?

10.The beginning of the terror, the men and their invasion? David and Amy and their fight for survival? Getting out of the room, escaping back in? Hiding?

11.Discovering the tunnels, the claustrophobic feel, travelling through? In Mason’s office? The discovery of the equipment?

12.The phone call, seeing the truck driver, discovering that he was collecting the videos? Discovering that the mechanic was one of the attackers? The police coming, their signalling, his inquiries, Mason’s response? His death?

13.Getting in the car, driving into the motel room, the death of the mechanic?

14.The final defence, David and his reassurances, his being attacked, left for dead? Amy and her strength of will, getting the gun? The confrontation with Mason? Shooting?

15.Audiences expecting a happy ending – or not? David’s survival, weak, the police arriving, telling them the truth?

16.The cathartic effect of this kind of horror film – a nightmare, people being able to identify with the characters and their predicament?