MovieChat Forums > Vacancy (2007) Discussion > 1st half = wow! / 2nd half = wtf happene...

1st half = wow! / 2nd half = wtf happened?

posted 14 years ago by Blaice
24 replies | jump to latest

This movie has possibly the best premiss and the best first half I've ever seen in any horror movie. Even with all its niggling imperfections. Then the remaining half rolls in, the movie stagnates, the disturbing ambience and hitchcockian borrowings disintegrate, and I'm left frustrated. So I hold out for the ending, wanting so much for it to *beep* me with some shocking twist and make at least something out of the failing. But what eventually comes is nothing more than lacklustre.

The thing is Vacancy is a great movie. The whole genre considered, it's great. It really is. But because it gave me such a stellar first half, and staggeringly high expectations of maintaining this to the end, when it panned out to utter disappointment the movie became subpar. And I am so annoyed. This is a love/hate thing I've got going on here and it's driving me insane. I want to buy it. I want to tell everyone about it. I want to inaugurate it into my select A-grade horror collection (alongside REC, The Descent, 28 Days Later, etc). But I can't, it doesn't deserve that. So now the only conceivable reason to buy it is to make a whole new category of it - HORROR MOVIES THAT DEVELOPED UNTHINKABLY HIGH EXPECTATIONS OF ITS AUDIENCE THEN DIED IN THE ASS. If the second half was better or at least on level with the pace, sheer shock value, and near-perfect concept creativity of the first half then it would join the ranks of top-tier horror. But it can't and is now doomed to be the only movie to ever affect me like this - the only movie to enter the aforementioned category.

To be honest, the hardest part of making a horror movie (and every fan knows this) is the initial reeling in. Let me tell you, this movie hook, line, and sinkered me at the start like none before it. HARD PART OVER. Now just continue on that note and end on that note and you've just had my babies. But no, Vacancy just had to flounder like the little bitch it is. It set up strong, then lost everything. This is a syndrome unique to horror movies. I get it. But I wanted so much to like this movie!

As some other posters have said, and as I say again. The imperfections could have been forgiven because it gave SO much on SO many different levels. Testimony to this: I admit I didn't even realise how terrible the casting (cemented in the first half) was until the second half came in at which point I started to pick it apart. Imperfections such as the idea to cast Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale. I get that they were tired, drugged up, and embittered toward each other but that doesn't preclude them from giving a satisfactory level of acting. Acting badly is still acting. In this it was as if "tired", "drugged", and "embittered" translated to "acting not required". I got used to Wilson, in fact I got what he was trying to do and it felt right. But Beckinsale caused my cringe to evolve. At least this would have been fixed if the makers just simply referred to the *beep* manual. Rule #1: horrors are best with no-namers. I mean if you're gonna cast the way they did, why not give the role of Mason to 'The Rock'.

And they never seemed to reach an acceptable level of fear either. Come on, *beep* was going down hard and I don't care if you were tired/medicated you need to start freaking out NOW, you need to start shaking and crying uncontrollably NOW, your adrenaline glands need to start pumping NOW, and you need to start thinking and acting to the point of distressed hysteria NOW when all at once you realise OMFG WE'RE GONNA GET FD UP!!! Instead (after the initial realisation) Wilson and Beckinsale combine to ruin the atmosphere by cruising through the tension and keeping their cool amid a constant and rapidly escalating lose-lose situation. All the while this should've been compounded by the fact that their relationship was in pieces but no apparently, irrationally, it was the glue that ensured they stayed brave, focussed, and co-equally reliant on one another.

Also, why did Mason and his boys wait until day to continue their attack? You would think, regardless of the place's isolation, that they would want to start covering up last night's proceedings STAT or at least before the sun comes up. That night, the chase suddenly ends when Beckinsale hides and goes to sleep. Then recommences absurdly as soon as she wakes up. Ha! That whole interluding block was pointless. And even more so since the disappearance of the cop would have undoubtedly spurred a hasty follow up by the local department.

I could keep going with this grain of qualitative, legitimate argument but I digress because I have stopped giving a *beep* Just like this movie stopped giving a *beep* halfway through and left me destitute and barren.

This movie could have been so much more. SO much more. Everyone has a movie they wish they could makeover or redo or go back in time and attain control of. I guess this is mine.

8.5/10 (first half with hopes of continuity)
5/10 (completed)

[–] just_the_writer 13 years ago

Okay, I agree with you on a lot of points. I actually screamed during a couple of scenes in this movie (late night with the lights off and the volume up. Cheap thrills are still thrills). And then it went totally downhill, culminating in a most disappointing ending. The last scene made me go, "The hell? That was the best ending you could manage?" I was invested in Wilson's likeable husband character, so I was glad he survived, but otherwise the tone of the ending was lacking (not that I could have picked up a camera and done better).

I can happily nod along with your criticism of Beckinsale's toned-down acting. But you're criticizing the decisions of the characters to not freak the hell out? Come on. If they'd reacted more impulsively we'd all be bitching nonstop about how stupid horror movie hero/heroines are, and how they never think things through. I liked that these two made some good decisions on the fly.

Also, I presume that Mason and his boys waited until daytime because they couldn't find her. They were just staking out the last places they'd seen her and waiting her out. When she came out of hiding, they reacted. I assume if she hadn't fallen asleep, that sequence of events would have occurred at night as well. (One might argue that if they were filming all the rooms, they would have been able to rewind their tapes and see where she'd disappeared to, though) .

I totally agree about being hook, line, and sinkered. Hard part really WAS over, and then that ending made me ashamed to have been jumping at scares (those masks were creepy as hell, though. That's a fact.)

[–] Latrove 13 years ago

Thank you for your reply. I hadn't actually thought about the continued filming of all rooms. I do still wonder if Mason limited it to the one room though. The masks were, yes, quite awesome. My favourite part was the tapes transaction that occurred midway. With my second favourite when the mechanic gave Beckinsale a sparkler - only since I had originally presumed that it was enacted as a 'signal' to indicate the targeted couple to other bad guys for whatever purpose (until the plot obviously developed and ruled that out). I actually watched this again recently and liked it a little more.

Have you seen Vacancy 2? I'm considering not watching it; sequels are most often deliciously underwhelming. But I mean that's half the reason why we watch horror, right? 'Cheap thrills'.

[–] kaleevanthompson 13 years ago

Don't bother with Vacancy 2, it's *beep* It has the same writer and producer, but it still manages to be *beep* Anyway, I pretty much summed up Vacancy like this: "I enjoyed the film up to the half-way point. The slow reveal of the protagonists crumbling marriage and painful past was well-executed. I also really enjoyed Frank Whaley's odd, demented, character. The problem began when the action began. It turned into a gimmicky, cliche-ridden, chase movie. Don't even get me started on Luke Wilson's miraculous ressurection at the end of the film." I stand by it.

[–] bssbears 13 years ago

I read the original script... totally different second half of the film. Much more character stuff as the husband/wife deal with what pushed them apart, which was the loss of the son. There's even a cool moment where when Luke Wilson died (yes, he died in the script), he thinks he sees his son walking toward him from the shadows, but as the boy nears, it turns out to be one of the masked killers. There was no "cop showing up" or "happy ending". Kate B. escapes to the highway, is picked up on a road by a guy who's going to take her to the police, then as they drive, she glances down and sees a part of the mask tucked under the seat. And that's how the script ended. Not sure why they changed it.

[–] caslingary 12 years ago

Did you see the same film I saw?

Possibly the most inept bad guys on film ever!

Possibly the worst and most boring ending ever!

6.2 Rating?????? Are the people who voted all hardcore drug users with the I.Q. of a brain damaged Wombat?

[–] naith 11 years ago

"Possibly the most inept bad guys on film ever!"

I think that you missing the main concept of them killing people. They killed dozens (by the amount of tapes shown - hundreds) people this way. They were in routine and not even once considered failure. It was shown just after they killed the cop. Even then they were calm and absolute confident that they gonna do everything they want with their victims. And that was not just beating and killing them. The main deal was psychological torture by scaring the s**t out of people. Hence leaving the tapes in the room, continuous knocking - even late in movie when they could just break in. Their overconfidence, routine, wanting to scare not only kill, record it all in the main stage (honeymoon suite) was their disadvantages that made them look like you described and finally fail.

"Possibly the worst and most boring ending ever!"

For me it was actually refreshingly fair and sensible. And that was the surprise that everyone want in the end. In this case the lack of cheesy, cliché, unrealistic last attack of the bad guy, when he's supposed to be dead (although by expecting it the tension was sustained). She shot him thrice in the chest and he died, then she called 911. And that's it. Great ending in it's cogency and simplicity. Perfidiously surprising.

[–] potsi-1 11 years ago

For me it was actually refreshingly fair and sensible. And that was the surprise that everyone want in the end. In this case the lack of cheesy, cliché, unrealistic last attack of the bad guy, when he's supposed to be dead (although by expecting it the tension was sustained). She shot him thrice in the chest and he died, then she called 911. And that's it. Great ending in it's cogency and simplicity. Perfidiously surprising.

Exactly. The script ending (with Kate Beckinsale noticing a mask in the car that rescued her) was nothing but cheap shock value for the sake of ending on a gloomy note. The film kind of asked the question "why shouldn't they triumph? Why should the bad guys be invincible? Why end in doom?" and did a 180 playing on what's expected by audiences and revealing a true twist by not trying to include "bonus" thrills.

[–] carmmm4 12 years ago

That would have been perfect!

[–] Carly_Corinthos1971 10 years ago

It was not that miraculous. It takes a long time to bleed to death from an abdominal wound. Watch Reservoir Dogs.

"I love Sonny and Sonny loves me"-Carly Corinthos

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gmansi 12 years ago

Maybe yes, but remembers the tunels, they look to have a tunel to every single room.

Maybe the honeymoon suite was for the main show?

[–] gmansi 12 years ago

"This movie has possibly the best premiss and the best first half I've ever seen in any horror movie. Even with all its niggling imperfections. Then the remaining half rolls in, the movie stagnates, the disturbing ambience and hitchcockian borrowings disintegrate, and I'm left frustrated. So I hold out for the ending, wanting so much for it to *beep* me with some shocking twist and make at least something out of the failing. But what eventually comes is nothing more than lacklustre. "

Full agree with you.

Great post.

[–] hansenmv2002 10 years ago

Me too.

Witty, wry dialog between 2 smart-ish characters ----- descending to:

Hammer in right hand --- she sees the gun on the above-door ?holder? -- *PUTS* hammer into left hand so she CANT QUITE REACH gun with right hand... on tippy-toes oc... WOW.

Bruce Campbell:[When asked what he would want with him if stuck on a deserted island] A continent.

[–] limortaccitua 12 years ago

you made me remember another movie I think has the same 1st half/2nd half "problem": Disturbia.

[–] Blaice 11 years ago

Great comparison! Disturbia easily slots into this problem.

[–] snoho 11 years ago

The best part of this movie was when we first heard the bangs on the other door. Everything else was pretty much predictable.

[–] fakeslashdash6 11 years ago

It seems clear that there are tunnels to all the rooms so most likely all of them are being filmed.

The thing is that they weren't just killing people, as David (Luke Wilson) noted, they want to scare and torture them first. Same reason why Mason kept showing up with the camera to catch their deaths.

So they *knew* she was hiding in there, that's why they were ready to kill her the instant she came out. They wanted to give her false hope so the torture effect will be much greater.

[–] Doc110894 10 years ago

Yeah, the script needed to be a little better.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 9 years ago

Totally agree with everything you said except about Beckinsale's acting. I thought she was quite good. Everything else is what I thought myself.

It definitely had a lot of promise, but fizzles out halfway through.

R.I.P. Rick Ducommun and Tony Longo

[–] Reva_C 9 years ago

I actually liked it all the way through LOL Goes to show we all have different tastes.

I thought the acting was great from both of them. And I loved the fact they didn't get hysterical. It was so refreshing to see two people be obviously scared and out of their depth but still keep their heads. I am so bored of seeing horror with girls (and it's usually the girl) screaming hysterically all over the place. It's boring and grates on you after a while. I much preferred this cooler, driven take on the acting.

I also think it fits the characters. I think it plays into the theme of their back story, losing a child. Because for them, the most terrifying thing that could possibly happen to them, losing a child, has already happened. So they're not going to get hysterical over this.

I also like the section when she falls asleep and then has to get out of the room. A) the pace needed a break, to let us catch our breath and B) it was scary LOL When she was peering down through the cracks, and then opens the hatch to look, and the shot is so narrow on her face that we can't see what she's seeing, you're feeling tension of what might be down there.

~ I hardly looked at his face. His knees were what I wished to see. ~