wadechurton Review of No Vacancy

No Vacancy (2012)

A mercifully short trek through tiresomely familiar ground...

[2/10 · 17 July 2013]

I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Saw' series (give or take an entry or two), because their plotting, acting and inventive 'traps' lifted them well above the norm. Their main saving grace however was the solid vein of black humour, something which accorded them a standing with the similarly fun 'Dr Phibes' movies of the early 1970s. There was a conspicuously low budget with 'The Helpers', but so there was with the first 'Saw', and the creators made a virtue of it. A low budget isn't the problem here, and neither for the most part is the acting. What utterly destroyed my enjoyment of 'The Helpers' is a distinct lack of ideas. This means that the movie falls squarely into the category of 'torture porn', and simulated snuff movies are just a tedious one-by-one blood-bath which follow a depressingly well-trodden path to the inevitable 'it's not really over' ending and the raucous music accompanying the final credits. Thank goodness it was so short.