Vacancy (2007)
Directed by Nimrod Antal
Screenplay by Mark L. Smith
Vacancy covers a lot of familiar horror tropes in a competent way. (I know that's not exactly a glowing review, but hey that's what happens when you're not on the studio dole.) We have a couple with relationship difficulties. We have a detour through rural countryside on a road trip. And we have a creepy motel. Yep, you probably feel like you've seen this film before but that feeling hasn't stopped you from watching every romantic comedy ever made so why should stop you from watching people go into a creepy motel where they are likely to be terrorized and murdered?
This is a film about love. It's about a couple who have already decided to get a divorce but when terrorized and nearly murdered they ultimately reaffirm their love for each other. Which is good, because if you and your spouse are being threatened to death by a bunch of hicks trying to make a snuff film and you hate your spouse more than the people trying to kill you then there's something wrong with you--or clearly there's something really wrong with your relationship. In the case of David and Amy Fox their problems are deep but not insurmountable. Nothing that can't be overcome with love and the impetus of survival in the face of massive danger.
The massive danger in this film is the commodification of death in the form of violent media. The cultural critique here is aimed vaguely in the direction of our increasing appetite for real violence which keeps pushing us back toward the idea of snuff films. In the great spirit of American entrepeneurship the management of this motel has worked a way to create and distribute snuff films--commodified violence. You have to hand it to the spirit of American ingenuity. The foreigners in Hostel sell their violence experience to an aristocratic wealthy elite. The killers in Vacancy are much more democratic. They create a violent experience that can be reproduced and sold to all classes. If the idea occurs to the folks in Hostel they think better of it--for the owners of Elite Hunting it is better to do a steady business with the elite rich who will also keep their activities discreet. For the folks running the motel in Vacancy it probably never occurs to them that they might find a sick bastard who will pay them to let them kill someone in their motel.
At any rate, it isn't the psychosis of an individual that puts The Foxes in danger. (Yes, they are foxes which makes the killers fox hunters. You're welcome for that British anti-foxhunting leagues.) Their lives are ultimately put in peril because of greed and simple business. Mason (I leave that name to the fans of Dan Brown to think about) and his accomplices are doing good old fashioned American business and the guests at the motel are just the dupes who keep the engine of industry rolling. The Foxes are merely a commodity and the truck drivers stopping in to pick up a sandwich and some snuff videos are the customers whose willful demand keeps the merchants of motel death in operation.
The media critique implicit in this film goes roughly like this: Here we are slaving away making fake violence for you and it just isn't good enough for you, is it, you sick fucks? No, you have to watch Cops or The Real Murderers of Bevery Hills because you hope to see a real person getting their head bashed into the sidewalk and when even that became stale for you along came the internet with all kinds of sick videos to keep you going. What the hell is wrong with you people? And there's an interesting question here about the social purpose of violent films. Are they a safe means of cathartic release of violent tendencies? Are they a gruesome means of confronting the idea of death--especially of the violent kind? Or are they just an appetizer of violence that creates a need for more violence in an escalating pattern that will inevitable lead to Thunderdome? In short, why do these truckers need to watch snuff films of people getting killed in a motel? And wouldn't watching a film like The Strangers or, for instance, Vacancy be enough to satisfy them? Apparently not.
At least this film solves doesn't posit killers who can walk through walls or have the ability to fold space. The moteliers have a system of tunnels and entrances that serve both as their means of entry and also as our victims' means of escape thus not only serving to clean up a plot point but also to create plot possibilities.
I think one of the charms of this film is that despite the incredible odds against them David and Amy survive. (Well, David is badly hurt, but I think it's safe to say that he's still alive at the end.) That's a testament to their intelligence and to their will to survive. Yes, indeed. These crazy kids will live and because of that, maybe their marriage will survive as well. Yep, it's a movie about the hardships of love and the strength that it requires to persevere and survive.
Maybe it's because I saw this immediately after The Strangers, but I found this to be a much more watchable film and thus I might even recommend it...if you're in the mood for a motel slasher film.
Dramatis Personae
Amy Fox.....Kate Beckinsale (Much Ado About Nothing, Cold Comfort Farm, Underworld, Van Helsing, The Aviator, Pearl Harbor, Republicans Get in My Vagina) You had me at Kate Beckinsale.
David Fox....Luke Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, Idiocracy)
Mason, the motel manager....Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction, The Doors, Born on the Fourth of July, Field of Dreams, Hoffa, Swing Kids)
Mechanic.....Ethan Embry (CSI: Miami, Fairly Legal, House, Brotherhood, Fear Itself, Eagle Eye, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Masters of Horror, Numb3rs, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Timeline, LA Dragnet, Sweet Home Alabama, Vegas Vacation, That Thing You Do, Empire Records, Harts of the West) He spends much of the film wearing a mask, which has to be a bit thankless.
Killer....Scott G. Anderson (Titanic, Touched by an Angel, Vacancy 2)
Truck Driver....Mark Casella (Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Joe Gould's Secret, Cop Land, St. Elsewhere, Scarecrow & Mrs. King, MASH, Simon & Simon, CHiPS, Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue)
Highway Patrol....David Doty (Weeds, Scrubs, Dollhouse, Seabiscuit, Wyatt Earp, Caroline in the City, The Golden Girls, Empry Nest, JAG, Never Been Kissed, Mumford, The West Wing, Star Trek: Voyager, Malcolm in the Middle, The X-Files, Six Feet Under, Spin City, The Drew Carey Show, The Practice, Minority Report, Down with Love, Nancy Drew, Childrens Hospital, Bad Teacher)
Snuff Victims....Norm Compton (Magnum, PI, Jake and the Fatman, The Big Tease, 24, 8mm, The Replacement Killers, The Fan, Hot Shots Part Deux)
Caryn Mower (Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Crossing Jordan, CSI, Ally McBeal, V.I.P., Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man's Chest, The Office, Parks and Recreation, 24, NCIS: Los Angeles, Community)
Meegan E. Godfrey (How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds, Pushing Daisies, Monk, Desperate Housewives, Dexter, CSI: Miami, General Hospital, Law & Order: LA)
Kim Stys (Angel, Monk, NCIS, My Name is Earl, Sons & Daughters, CSI: Miami, Californication, Piranha, House, Justified, The Mentalist)
Ernest Misko (The Big Valley, Wild Wild West, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
Bryan Ross (Sex and Death 101, The Longest Yard, Grandma's Boy, Obsessed)
Chuck Lamb (ThanksKilling, Stiffs, Horrorween)
Snuff Guy #3....Richie Varga (Eraser, Melrose Place, Weird Science (TV))
Snuff Guy #4....Cary Wayne Moore (The Donner Party, Gilmore Girls, Justified, Hart of Dixie)
Steven R......Andrew Fiscella (The Hard Times of RJ Berger, House, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Prom Night, CSI: NY, Without a Trace, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent)
Brenda B.....Dale Waddington (Castle, Monk, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, iCarly, Mad Men, The Closer, Important Things w/Demetri Martin, The Young and the Restless, Criminal Minds)
Original Music by Paul Haslinger (Crank, Turistas, Blue Crush, Underworld, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Underworld: Awakening)
Cinematography by Andrzej Sekula (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, American Psycho, Cousin Bette, Four Rooms)
Special Features
1. Alternate Opening Sequence
I think the crime scene opening gives away too much without adding anything that interesting to the film. Plus, it breaks the mood of a film that is mostly set at night.
2. Checking In: the Cast & Crew of Vacancy
Pretty standard promo stuff. Nimrod Antal comes off as an intelligent director and the scenic component is very nice to see in action.
3. Mason's Video Picks: Extended Snuff Films
It's a little awkward watching these fake snuff films. They seem almost mundane, which is the point.
But there's something too perfectly meta about watching these things. I think I would have liked them better if there was some sort of commentary that explained the scenarios that had been concocted (if any) for the victims in these fake motel snuff films. That would have been interesting.
4. Raccoon Encounter
I'll admit that this deleted bit probably sold me on this film. I know it might have destroyed the tone of the film had it been included, but the fact that they left it on the disc is encouraging in terms of the imagination of the filmmakers. The setup is that David swerves to miss a raccoon on the road and thus the car falls into difficulties. Later when David stops to take a leak by the side of the road he is startled by...a raccoon. If they could have thrown the raccoons into the motel as well that would have been awesome.
5. Previews
Coming to Blu-Ray
Things that have already come to Blu-Ray.
30 Days of Night
Vampires in the polar regions. The soundtrack for this trailer makes it one of the best ever.
Resident Evil: Extinction
Umbrella Corp in Vegas.
Vantage Point
I've seen so many trailers for this that I feel I don't need to see the film itself. I'll stick with the vantage point of not seeing this movie.
I Know Who Killed Me
I don't care who killed you.
Revolver
Another Guy Ritchie film with Jason Statham. I'm not saying the Ritchiverse is not good, but everything does seem to run together in my head now.
Perfect Stranger
Based on the 1980s sitcom Perfect Strangers. Not a good adaptation.
Rise: Blood Hunter
Another vampire movie. It's like Blade only with Lucy Liu.
Hostel Part II
See the review from earlier. A film that is better than I had imagined.
Bobby Z
Paul Walker, Laurence Fishburne and Olivia Wilde. Vaguely interested by the cast, uninterested by the plot.
Fearnet.Com
Whenever I see a website trailer I always feel like it must already be defunct by now, but apparently fearnet is still up and running...running on fear, that is.
FILE UNDER: HORROR/SLASHER/RURAL/MOTEL MURDERERS
