ridiculous rating

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

Not a perfect movie, but if you go into this with the expectations you should have of a slasher, you might be pleasantly surprised. Was a pretty effective thrill ride for the most part, an interesting premise, and they took the time to develop the characters, humanize them.... they are not the typical generic cardboard cutout stand-ins of your usual slasher.Nor are they just - how to put it - gore meat, there for the slaughter. They make a contest of it, and you are really not sure till the end if they are going to make it. Unlike a lot of the more cheesey and lame flicks (like Wolf Creek) the bad guys are not immune to error, and will not necessarily magically appear wherever they need to... you feel watching it like the prey has a fighting chance to make it out.The build-up is really well done. It's not too slow, not too fast, and the vids the guy finds in his hotel room are really pretty realistic and horrific.------------------------------------Spoilers------------------------------------Little details bothered me on occasion:-end scene when Amy calls 911, doesn't stress the need for an ambulance (husband still alive after all)-considering one cop has already been through, the hotel guy & his two killers leave the body of David sitting out in the open overnight?-why did one of the bad guys jump on top of the car to get her out of it (the car hadn't started or moved at the point he decides to jump on the car - wouldn't you go to the door to yank her out of the car rather than jump on the roof with intention to go through the windshield?-The escallation of events was a bit ham-fisted in a few places when subtlety would have been better - eg, when the "fake 911 call" happens, and a car barrels through the phone box, at the time I thought it was a bit of a tension killer... imagine if instead he realises they are still messing with him, is creeped out by something more subtle, and rushes back to the room to save his wife.In all, this is not a film for the ages, but you don't expect that going into a slasher, you expect a thrill ride, and this one delivers. Stands out head and shoulders above its peers in the genre, worth watching... turn off the lights, grab the popcorn & lock the doors.

This could easily be dismissed as a standard horror slasher film. But compelling performances, a disturbing twisted plot and exceptional direction make this so much more. It's soo good because the characters behave in a realistic fashion given the strange situation they're thrown into. It's scary because of the tension created and doesn't rely on cheap scares or a huge body count.

A troubling couple find themselves in a motel whose owner likes to make his guests stars of his snuff movies. They have to find a way out. Nothing we haven't heard of before. But Vacancy is enjoyable because of two things.First, it puts more emphasis on claustrophobic bunker elements.Secondly, it doesn't pretend to be more than it is. This is a short horror flick made for quick entertainment without additional, more complex elements (as in The Babadook or It Follows) which would undoubtedly make it from time to time boring.There are quite a few jump-scares without much of a gore. As in most movies of this type, characters are prone to making irrational decisions but Beckinsale and Wilson make up for it since two of them look nice together.In short, if you're looking for a not too scary movie without macabre or gore for short entertainment, you've come to the right place. Oh, and there's a third thing: it's got a little bit of soul in it as well.

I didn't have high expectations for Nimród Antal's "Vacancy", so I wasn't disappointed. Basically, the message that all moviegoers should gleam from movies set in motels is to be suspicious (look what happened to Marion Crane). Hell, if "1408" - based on a Stephen King book - is any indication, then not even regular hotels are safe.Basically, the movie delivers what it promises. If you expect a typical horror flick then you'll get your prize. I guess that from now on, I'll call this movie the horror flick starring the woman from "Cold Comfort Farm" (about an English socialite who meets her eccentric rural relatives) and the man from "Idiocracy" (about a future United States populated entirely by stupid people).