Why do I have the feeling VACANCY was rushed into production during the period that gave us HOSTEL, HIGH TENSION and whatever the latest SAW installment was in 2006? It borrows liberally from those films, and even echoes PSYCHO. But what we get is a TURISTAS set in the American Southwest. A stranded couple (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) puts up at a rundown motel in the middle of nowhere. They are the motel's only occupants, but soon enough an unseen someone or something is pounding away on their door and Wilson finds tapes of torture/murders being committed on previous occupants of that very same room. Turns out the motel owner (Frank Whalley) is a psychopath and has a couple of buddies who enjoy joining him in his favorite pastime, torturing and killing people and videotaping the whole thing. Wilson and Beckinsale, who should know better than to appear in nonsense like this, are soon doing their best to fend off the killers. This includes crawling around in tunnels under the motel. Scary in parts, but nothing makes much sense and the film feels very rushed, including the fairly predictable ending.
Review of Vacancy
