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Vacancy

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 75 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Mark L. Smith
Directed by: Nimród Antal
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 20, 2007
DVD: August 14, 2007
Running Time: 80 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for brutal violence and terror, brief nudity and language
Starring Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry, Scott G. Anderson, Mark Casella, David Doty, and Norm Compton
When David (Wilson) and Amy Fox's (Beckinsale) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to spend the night at the only motel around, with only the TV to entertain them... until they discover that the low-budget slasher movies they're watching were all filmed in the very room they're sitting in. With hidden cameras now aimed at them... trapping them in rooms, crawlspaces, underground tunnels... and filming their every move, David and Amy must struggle to get out alive before whomever is watching them can finish their latest masterpiece. (Sony)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Kontroll
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Vacancy is a schlock surprise: a no-frills motel-hell slasher film -- with a bit of soul.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
For the most part, this movie hits the right notes and gives its audience a dose of white-knuckle tension.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
The acting is solid, especially Whaley, whose nasty variation on Norman Bates is his showiest role since he memorably played Kevin Bacon's assistant in "Swimming With Sharks."
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Succeeds where so many other recent horror pictures have failed: It consistently scares you silly.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Tim Grierson
Antal smartly adheres to the no-frills demands of B-movie horror, eliciting impressive chills from old-fashioned suffocating dread rather than the now usual gore. And Wilson and Beckinsale superbly execute everything that's required of their characters--namely, yelling and running.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Making an assured transition to Hollywood after his Hungarian cult sensation "Kontroll," director Nimród Antal gets his business done with an efficiency that recalls "Red Eye," another thriller that clocks in under 90 minutes. But efficiency isn't everything, and Antal sacrifices too much in order to sustain tension.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Gene Seymour
A mangy-looking mongrel with a lot of familiar markings and a little more on the ball than you'd expect at first glance.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
At its worst, Vacancy is merely the kind of taut B-chiller they don't make any more, other than to riff on them in "Grindhouse."
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
Vacancy could have been some sort of satirical masterpiece had this whole scenario been finally revealed as an extreme form of couple's therapy designed to get Beckinsale and Wilson back together.
Read Full Review >USA Today Scott Bowles
It isn't the Bates Motel, but the Pinewood Motel has enough creepy visitors and creaky floors to make Vacancy worth checking into for 90 minutes.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Short, sharp and to the point, Vacancy has a single goal, and that is to scare the hell out of you.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Michael Ferraro
It's rare to see Luke Wilson in such a serious role. He does an admirable job of ignoring his mostly comedic background but the real scene-stealer is Frank Whaley.
Read Full Review >Empire Nick de Semlyen
This stripped-down chiller has some decent jump-frights, but a dearth of memorable moments.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Vacancy, in the end, simply offers a particularly aggressive brand of couples counseling.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Wilson and Beckinsale, as the couple on the rocks, do their damnedest to go along for the creepfest, but nothing in Vacancy manages to come anywhere close to the quiet and steadily mounting dread of the real thing, much less the purview of Norman Bates or his beloved mother.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
If "Psycho" and "Peeping Tom" are the seminal killer-as-voyeur movies, Vacancy is the nasty little runt offspring with no other purpose in life but to gnaw on you.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
While the sadism doesn't stoop -- rise? -- to the level of the "Saw" horror-thrillers, Vacancy does have a name cast.
Read Full Review >Variety John Anderson
At the risk of spoiling anything, Vacancy, is one strange movie. It ends so precipitously, one can only assume it's a setup for the sequel (which, given all that happens, seems a mite unlikely).
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
This ghastly swatch of pulp horror is compelling at the most basic level, but so little is going on in it that you might as well be watching a sadistic lab experiment performed on mice.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It is a fairly routine exercise in New Millennium movie mayhem.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
For horror fans who appreciate a bit of craft with their second-rate experiences -- Paul Haslinger's fear-mongering score is terrific for what it's worth -- this might merit a future late-night rental.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
80 minutes of formulaic unpleasantness isn't even close to my idea of a good time, and I doubt that Hitchcock himself could have done very much with Mark L. Smith's script.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
This banal horror retread involves a couple of critters flailing inside a sticky trap for what is, in effect, the big-screen equivalent of a roach motel.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
This is a no-cable, no-wake-up-call, cash-only dump of a film, where you breathe through a hankie and bring your own Lysol.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 75 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Kevin L. gave it a5:
Vacancy wasn't the best horror movie I've seen and its not the worst. Its unoriginal plotline and its predictable events rarely keep me in tact.
Chris V gave it a3:
No way, this movie really sucked!!! its boring and not entertaining at all, no way, cant believe that this kind of movies are still going out in theaters, these ones should be directly to dvd!!!! Worst Movie Ever!!!!
Marie M gave it an8:
Hitchcock would be proud. All the other reviews talk about how little gore there is and they're right and that's SO refreshing. The only thing I'll add is that Luke Wilson's a wonderful actor and I wish he were in more movies. He's completely natural and sympathetic yet strong here.
Robert I. gave it a7:
Good scary flick, at a time when too much that passes for a nail-biter acts more like a manicure. Hold somebody's hand.
kamil gave it a9:
Great horror. Sometimes little B-movie miracle happens. Just don't take it seriously and enjoy beautiful beckinsale and surprisingly good wilson in this frightening and entertaining flick. More quality horrors please.
Fred G. gave it an8:
Kept me on the edge of my seat....very entertaining.
Steve S. gave it a10:
My wife and I loved it! And no gore to boot. Great acting, and very relatable characters. Unmarried twenty somethings might hate this film, though.
