VACANCY
UNEXPLAINED PSYCOPATHY
By Vishal Verma
Rating:- * *
What is it?
Alfred Hitchcock must be wondering in heaven what the hell is happening at the Motel. After receiving Prix de la Jeunesse at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival director Nimrod Antal gets some inspiration from the great Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece ‘Psyco’ and comes up with ‘Vacancy’ a not so spine chilling night at a motel. Though the flick has its thrilling moments but the in the end it turns out to be a treasure hunt without any map, forget about the treasure.
Whats it all about?
A late night detour leads to an unimaginable nightmare when an estranged couple’s car breaks down on a remote country road. Finding themselves stranded on a dark and deserted two-lane highway, David Fox (Luke Wilson) and his soon-to-be ex-wife Amy (Kate Beckinsale) are forced to spend the night at a seedy motel run by an odd but seemingly harmless proprietor (Frank Whaley). In their filthy, threadbare room, the bickering couple finds a cache of homemade slasher flicks that look disturbingly real. Once they realize the blood-soaked videos were shot in the very room in which they are staying, David and Amy know they will be the sadistic filmmaker’s next victims unless they put aside their differences and work together to escape.
What to look out for?
The scene where the couple sees the videos and realizes that they are the next target is well captured. The chase and the couple’s spine –chilling struggle to escape is well narrated by Nirmod Antal. These are the moments where you are on the edge of their seat. Luke Wilson gives a fine performance after ‘The Family Stone’.
What Not?
Frank Whaley as the sadist psychopath disappoints. The plot reaches its crescendo on a sorry note. The reason behind this blood-shed mania is not explained. Yet another example of a promising start with a sorry end.
Recommended: well, maybe if you do not mind unexplained bloodshed.