Snuff Hotel

Things go from bad to worse in Vacancy, a brutal game of cat and mouse starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as on-the-outs married couple David and Amy Fox.

When the Foxes’ car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to spend the night at the only motel in the vast creepiness of They’re-really-going-to-wish-they-weren’t-hereville.

With only the TV to entertain them, and a few beyond disturbing videotapes of snuff films the couple soon discovers offer an ominous look at what lies ahead for them – because said films were all filmed in the very room in which…they...are – David and Amy must struggle to get out of there alive before whomever is watching them can finish their latest masterpiece.

What follows is nearly 90 minutes of edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting…stress.

As much a suspenseful thriller Vacancy is, it also is rather stressful. It really hits a nerve, and it’ll make you think twice about your accommodations from now on. But the movie works, in spite of its claustrophobic vibe, as a great don’t-you-f----with-us-fellas exercise in survivorship.

Wilson remains a grounding presence, while Beckinsale (in for her leading man’s Family Stone co-star Sarah Jessica Parker, who bowed out before production started) provides the necessary combination of beauty and girl power that’ll make you root for the Foxes until the very end.

All and all, Vacancy is worth checking out…if you enjoy this type of fare.

My Rating ***

Photo: Screen Gems.