Review - Vacancy

2007's Vacancy, starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale was potentially the scariest movie of the year despite being formulaic and predictable. Amy and David Fox are a struggling couple whose car breaks down on the side of the road and their only refuge from the night is the dumpy motel. Surely it is obvious by now where the story is going; there will be a maniac who torments them Norman Bates-style and their trials will be a sort of couples counseling reminding them why they loved each other in the first place.
However, despite the obviousness of the plot, Vacancy doesn't feel contrived but rather feels familiar. It is easy for the audience to settle into the story and recognize the archetypes and the steps within the story. Audiences are sure to recognize the conventions 'borrowed" from not only Psycho and Halloween but also Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more modern classics like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. What would normally have killed a movie like this--predictability and a serious lack of originality-- actually work in Director Nimrod Antal's favor. He smartly borrows only what works and leaves the contriteness and silly slasher-movie cliches behind.
He is clearly a very strong director, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. His extreme close-ups and tight camerawork mirror the imprisonment of the film's leads. He turns Vacancy, which could have been another grungy, butcher knife in the shadow movie into a stylish thriller which actually delivers genuine scares. It is one of the few films in recent memory that actually makes my heart race even though i know exactly where it is going.
The first half of the film is especially strong, using the simplest of events to convey fear like bright lights and loud noises. Like Hitchcock, Antal knows the fears that are present in everyone-- claustrophobia, powerlessness, the unexpected-- and he utilizes every one of these horror tropes to shock his audiences. Vacancy works because it doesn't try to scare you with its masked killers; they are simply a means to turning your own internal fears against you.
There hasn't been a horror movie so stylishly made and so connected with its audiences real fears since Hitchcock.