Snuff and nonsense

VACANCY (15, 85 mins) Horror/Thriller. Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry. Director: Nimrod Antal.ANYONE who has seen Hitchcock’s Psycho knows only too well that rundown, roadside motels in the middle of nowhere can seriously damage your health.Evidently, the husband and wife at the centre of Vacancy are unfamiliar with Norman Bates, otherwise they would think twice about checking into Nimrod Antal’s nasty thriller.So for 85 minutes, we’re voyeurs to all manner of psychological torture and near-death scrapes as the would-be victims fight for their lives against masked attackers, who use the motel as a makeshift set for DIY snuff movies.Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale are an odd choice for the bickering couple, but from the performances we quickly understand why their characters are poised to finalise a divorce.Beckinsale plays her Prozac-addled wife as a shrew, who constantly snipes and criticises, so our sympathy goes out to Wilson’s nice guy husband, suffering the barbs with the patience of a saint.The catalyst for the arguments is the accidental death of the couple’s son. Guilt and grief have consumed David Fox (Wilson) and his wife Amy (Beckinsale), who are returning from a visit to her parents.In the dead of night on a deserted two-lane highway, the car begins to make strange noises. A friendly mechanic (Embry) lend a hands but the car grinds to a halt and David and Amy seek refuge in the Pinewood Motel, presided over by a creepy manager, Mason (Whaley).The couple reluctantly pays for a room and settles into their far from luxurious surroundings of the honeymoon suite.“I guess it could be worse,” jokes David. “We could be stuck at your folks’ house, in a twin bed, pretending to be a happy couple.”A series of bangs from an adjoining room is the beginning of David and Amy’s nightmare.It never ceases to amaze how even the most tightly plotted Hollywood thriller can unravel in the space of single, inconsequential scene.In Vacancy, the turning point happens midway through the deadly game of cat and mouse between David and Amy and their pursuers.The terrified couple manages to evade the CCTV cameras and emerges, unseen, in what appears to be a mechanic’s office.Rather than arm themselves with tools, or silently creep into the undergrowth, the husband and wife risk giving away their location by noisily barricading one of the escape routes, then hunkering down until the bad guys find them.The knife-wielding killers are only too pleased to oblige.Screenwriter Mark L. Smith compounds his crime with a laughable concession to a happy ending.The snuff movie footage on the videotapes found in David and Amy’s room is far more disturbing than anything director Antal conjures here, with an over-the-top finale that confirms the last vestiges of believability checked out a long, long time ago.DAMON SMITHn See listings for film times.