MOVIE REVIEW: "Vacancy" (2007)

Synopsis: When David and Amy's car breaks down in the middle of a freeway, they have no choice but to spend the night at a roadside motel. What they could not imagine is that there they would live the worst moments of their lives.

I have to say I've lost count of how many movies of this genre I've ever seen involving abandoned highways and motels where everything has to be sorted out before daybreak... But the initial plot of this one caught my eye for flirting. with an atypical proposal. However, this movie just kept its promise of being cheery and kept only at average temperature.

A Horror Diary

One thing that is not very common in thrillers is having couples in crisis as protagonists, and this often happens because this approach can take away the main purpose of the movie. This could be the great differential of this title, but unfortunately the script does not go deeper into this problem, treating it shallowly, superficially (as if it was hardly mentioned at the beginning of the film) and leaving all its intensity aside.

The movie begins by establishing a script that has the potential to be a good suspense with dramatic pinches (although simple, the arc between the protagonists sounds solid and conducive to a better explanation), but it doesn't take long for it to get lost (frustrating the expectation of many viewers who expected to watch something other than what was coming) and to sink - thankfully... not completely - in a sea of inherent clichés of the genre.

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Disregarding the dramatic and the most relevant elements that had the potential to make this movie more efficient, the script then decides to work only on the suspense side and put the couple of protagonists in a bad spot. When they have to deal with the dark secret that the motel hides, they begin to develop strategies to fight unknown enemies hoping to survive for the next few hours.

From this specific point on, the narrative gets a good breath and is built with an atmosphere that can keep the audience's attention until a certain moment... Then, everything starts to get a little tiring and dragging. Although there are some suspenseful scenes that involve a good movie setting and considerable level of violence, those same scenes - from another perspective - are starting to be recycled and the fact that the script doesn't explore the territory where the story takes place helps to nullify the impact that they should have.

Revista Cinefagia

Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson are the main names in the cast and their respective performances do justice to the development of their characters. That means they are average. They are not excellent enough to save this movie... But neither are they so bad as to completely ruin it (and the same can be said of the supporting cast, even though everyone has very short screen times).

When it comes to its technical aspects, it is worth mentioning some well thought out camera frames and lighting (in some scenes the suspense gets even more frightening and claustrophobic because of them)... These two points are essential for the movie can be viewed and enjoyed more easily. At times, the soundtrack also strengthens the mood of tension and can also be considered another interesting point that adds value to the movie.

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Directed by Nimród Antal on a linear level (floating between the good and the bad), it's easy to watch Vacancy in an uncompromising way and without higher expectations... But for those looking for a denser and more complex suspense, surely these people will be very frustrated if they choose to watch this one.

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MOVIE URL:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10294-vacancy?language=en-US

MY RATING: A (6,5/10)