David Fox (Luke Wilson of The Family Stone) and his soon to be ex wife Amy (Kate Beckinsale of The Aviator) are driving late at night as they return home from her parents’ anniversary party. For now, they are putting on a front to make the parents happy. An accident involving the death of their young child is at the heart of their breakup.  

Amy is asleep as David drives. When he runs into a traffic jam on the expressway, David decides to take a short cut. Things are OK until he damages his car trying to avoid killing a raccoon. They stop in a small town and get a car repair only to break down again less than two miles away. After walking back to town, they decide to stay at the Pinewood Hotel. The innkeeper Mason (Frank Whaley of World Trade Center) is right out of the Bates Motel from Psycho. This town is also reminiscent of the one in House of Wax. The key difference is that the acting in Vacancy is far better. 

With the look on Mason’s face during registration and the screaming coming from his TV, we know that something is strange. However, the Fox’s are not intuitive enough to sense that things are amiss, even though they get a free upgrade to the Honeymoon Suite from this very odd person. When the water runs rusty and they see cockroaches, any doubt that something is foul no longer exists. 

Events spiral out of control from here. The horror begins (which is revealed in the great trailer) when David finds a stash of what appears to be home made porn flicks, after he learns that he can get zilch from the air signal. The only thing that he and Amy can watch is what’s on the videotapes. Rather than porn films, they’re snuff films. The alarm-o-meter rises more than a bit, but it goes off the chart when he realizes the movies were made in their Honeymoon Suite. 

It’s at this point that the game is on. The bad guys start banging on the walls and the Fox’s learn that the windows are nailed shut. No doubt, they are to be the next victims. 

There are a respectable number of thrills and feelings of horror as Amy and David come together to fight evil, but the acting and story only make this a notch above something like “The Hills Have Eyes 2.” 

Illogical things happen, like the Fox’s leaving their car emergency lights on all night when they walk back to the hotel. Later, when a policeman comes in response to a 911 call at night, by daybreak the station is still not on alert even though they’ve not heard from the policeman. This is sloppiness that comes as a surprise from director Nimrod Antal, who made the superb Hungarian thriller Kontroll.  

What also detracted from the film was a lack of contrast. Just about all scenes were photographed at night or in near darkness, and this deficiency of polarity continued throughout. In Psycho there was a far better set up with the hotel not coming into play until about 30 minutes into the movie. The concentration of that aspect of Psycho allowed the horror to have the desired punch. However, with Vacancy clocking in at a mere 80 minutes, viewers barely have time to check-in. Still, for those looking for a thrill, this is a cut above the normal horror movie. It’s worth a look.