- Culture
- 15 Jun 07
Vacancy smartly eschews frills and gore in favour of old-fashioned B-movie dread.
Warring divorcees David (Wilson) and Amy (Beckinsale) are bickering when their car breaks down in the middle of Deliverance country. Their mobile phone, we quickly establish, isn’t receiving a signal. Forced to spend the night at a spooky motel, they take a break from stepping over cockroaches to check out the in-room entertainment. The fusty pile of video tapes beside the TV turn out to be snuff movies filmed – with perfect urban myth synchronicity – IN THIS VERY MOTEL ROOM. Somebody starts to bang the door. They realise they’re being filmed from every angle.
They have to escape. But how?
Nimród Antal, director of the taut Hungarian subway horror Kontroll, smartly eschews frills and gore in favour of old-fashioned B-movie dread. The results are neat, taut and a fine example of extreme marriage counselling.