A couple traveling to see family have car trouble in the middle of nowhere, they end up staying in an old motel while waiting for a nearby service station to open up. While there, they stop bickering long enough to check out a stack of video tapes near the TV. They soon realize the brutal horror movies they’re watching took place in the very room they’re in. Now the killers are going to play with them for a while, then let them star in a snuff film of their own.

I’m generally irritated by the term “thriller”, because so many idiots like to use that term to separate movies they consider “quality” from normal horror flicks, which they like to look down upon. Vacancy is an example of when that moniker is completely appropriate. This movie is all about pacing and keeping the suspense uncomfortably high.

I often make fun of jareprime because he’s very impatient and pacing in a movie really matters a lot to him. I think he’ll enjoy this one. About ten minutes in the story is really going, and from there it doesn’t stop until the credits roll. At which time, I’m not exaggerating when I say I was a little relieved, I was really into the action and it was truly tiresome.

Now I’m not saying it was a great movie, it was pretty damn good, though. A solid story, likeable characters and plenty of action, but as I said, it’s the pacing that makes this one a winner. I’m serious about that, it’s so common to draw this sort of thing out until it becomes tedious. At the end I literally was thinking, “end it now and it’s good,” and they did.

Another interesting aspect is there’s very little blood, but at the same time the level of brutality is pretty high here. What we see of the snuff films is truly harsh, even though if I were to list what happens it wouldn’t sound like much. Just the style, really. When you see a masked man throwing a bloody, half-naked woman around, then, mostly off screen, he just pounds her and pounds her while she wails. It’s strong stuff.

All in all, a very solid horror flick. I don’t think I’d watch it over and over, but I’m glad I watched it this time.

8 out of 10