365 Days. 365 Films.

Vacancy is your run-of-the-mill, motel based slasher thriller starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, a couple whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere forcing them to rent a room at a creepy looking motel for the night. A few minutes into their stay, they hear banging from the room next door, the phone rings a few times with no one on the other end and someone keeps banging on their door with no answer. After they realise the TV doesn’t work they play some videos, only to find that they are snuff films that have been filmed in the very room they are staying in and then, well, you know how it goes.

This isn’t really a bad film – predictable, yes, but made well and sometimes a little jumpy so not wholly disappointing. Beckinsale and Wilson are great in their roles, but as with all slasher films, their full potentials as actors is ignored in favour of a lot of screaming and crying, which is something that annoys me about horror films these days – there is no genuine emotion behind it, it’s all about creeping out the audience with a blood curdling scream and faces popping up in windows.

I had no idea what the premise of this film was when I turned it on and didn’t even know what genre it was going to be, I have to say that I was quite happy when it became apparent to me, but I got bored very quickly. If you like new horror films, and by ‘new’ I mean 1990s onwards, then you will probably like this one, but if you prefer the classics like me, this will be an average film to you. Take it or leave it, it won’t really effect you either way.

I honestly don’t know why motels get any business any more…