Vacancy: Review By The Lost Girl

Director Nimrod Antal, who also brought us the film "Kontroll," brings us a suspenseful thriller. Although it's not an original story, great acting and directing make this a great movie.

The story opens with an unhappily married couple, Amy (Kate Beckinsale; Underworld), and David (Luke Wilson; You Kill Me) Fox. Their marriage has fallen apart since the death of their son, and they are on their way home from a family function. It's nighttime, and of course, they are in the middle of nowhere. Their car begins to make noises. They stop in a small town, the gas station is closed (of course), so they decide to check-in at the small motel for the night (of course, again). Like I said, not an original story.

The motel room is nasty. C*ckroaches crawl around. The water flowing out of the faucet is brown. Definitely not a place where you want to take off your shoes, let alone crawl under the sheets. Even the cable TV doesn't work. But all is not lost. Management has left VCR tapes for their viewing pleasure. It's what's on these tapes that sets off the remainder of the movie.

Although this type of thriller movie has been done before, and the audience knows who's doing what, the film still is good. Luke Wilson is not one of my favorite actors, but he does a decent job in this. He and Kate Beckinsale have good chemistry and work well off each other. Both are believable in their acting, and during the suspense scenes the acting is not overly dramatic. I also appreciate the fact that the actors are smart, meaning, not doing the total opposite to try to save themselves.

I'm not familiar with the director but I feel he does a good job. I also like the camera angles and visuals, especially during the more tense scenes, and the opening scene in the vehicle.

Overall, a decent thriller. If you haven't seen this one yet, check it out!