Simply Perfect

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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.

Really liked this movie was well done and acted and the tension was quite excellent at times. The film starts with a couple recovering from the loss of there son and was incorporated in a neat way. There driving back from a family reunion and there relationship seems doomed then the fun really starts when there car breaks down, you have to watch this movie as I will not spoil the rest!!!!

"Vacancy" is another example of building suspense, thrills, and twists without having to resort to the clichés that have plagued horror movies for years. There's very little blood, next to no nudity, well done jump-scares (aside from the one at the beginning), and the plot is simple and has less than 10 characters to it. It has a goal, and a mission, and it doesn't need a bunch of college kids looking to get wasted to move the plot along. Wilson and Beckinsale, do really well with their roles, as does Frank Whaley (Mason). I guess you could compare this to a modernized "Psycho", while certainly not a remake, I got similar vibes when I saw "Psycho" a few months ago. "Vacancy" had a lot of guts to be made right in the middle of the "Torture Porn Era" of horror movies, but, like "Disturbia", it manages to succeed with it's story, characters, and simple plot.

I don't remember in what year I watched this movie (back when I used to rent VCDs) but I'm writing this review now in 2016 randomly just because I'm back on thriller movies marathon again recently, this movie came to mind and I can still remember almost every plot of it. That's just how good it is. I call good movies when they can stay in my head for a long time after watching, and with emotional involved too. How the director built the emotional issues between the couple was very well done and I enjoyed every thrill I felt as the terror came one at a time. The presence of Luke Wilson as an ordinary man, a regular person just like us is what I really adore here. I keep remembering how he can be sharp in such pressuring situation and manage to stay calm and logic. Most thriller movies feature characters that would at least act panic, do stupid mistakes or be the whining ones (admit it, you always know the whining ones will always be dead, sometimes first). This man was just not any of them. Usually the first hour of these kind of movies is all about the mystery and the next hour is about the revealing, the part when I sometimes push the fast-forward button if the scenes are too lame or predictable that I just want to know the result. Not this movie. The processes kept me watching and I enjoyed them. I give 10/10 because I couldn't remember any mistake in this movie, if there's any. What matters is that it still stuck in my memory until now and I'm waiting for it to fade so I can watch it again and go through all the terrors and frightening set-ups like I haven't before.