Vacancy

--R-- During the first 15 to 20 minutes of the movie, the director establishes his characters mindsets and relationship. During this time I was bored and felt the movie would not be able to bounce back from such a hum-drum start. I was wrong!

Once the Fox's (Beckinsale and Wilson) start to settle down for the night, their "neighbors" start harassing them with phone call hang-ups and banging. At this point the movie becomes a better than average horror flick. What makes it so different from most other horror movies is that the prey don't make all the cliched mistakes. They remain calm and level headed enough to think and plot plausible escape options. For instance: In one scene Beckinsale falls asleep due to the medications she is taking and awakes to find her husband studying the snuff films featuring the previous rooms tenants. He was studying them looking for mistakes the killers may have made in the past or routines they follow. The purpose of course was to find a way out of this horrifying situation. Something most characters in horror movies would not even think of doing. This was just one example of what made this movie terrifyingly intense as opposed to an almost comical slasher flick.

All in all Vacancy is a solid Horror movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat and entertained throughout.

cah