The Snuff of Nightmares – Checking into ‘Vacancy’ 16 Years Later

Stopping at an isolated, run-down motel for the night does not bode well in a horror film. Audiences expect — even want — something bad to happen. Vacancy more than satisfies those expectations, seeing as how Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson’s hapless, anguished characters almost instantly find themselves in peril once they book a room at the Pinewood Motel. Dirty sheets and bad plumbing are the least of their problems when they discover their accommodations come with one additional, not to mention creepy, amenity: secret cameras.

Had things gone differently, Vacancy would have starred Sarah Jessica Parker, and it would have been directed by Simon West. As interesting as it would have been to see Parker fight for her life in a straight-up horror film, plans changed and Kate Beckinsale filled the role of Amy Fox. Luke Wilson, however, was David Fox from the very beginning when the film was first announced in 2006. Mark L. Smith’s script was then eventually handed over to Hungarian director Nimród Antal, who had previously made a splash overseas with his subway thriller Control.

Vacancy is, in some ways, a “home invasion” film. A hotel room is not necessarily considered a home, but it is intended to be a respite from the outside world. A safe space to heal and rest. And for the Foxes, they especially need some reassurance that everything is going to be okay, at least for one night. Not only have they suffered a tremendous personal loss, their marriage is now over. Before they can make the divorce official, though, David and Amy have to survive another of life’s challenges, albeit an unusual one.

By the time Vacancy came out, there had been a rise in vacation horror. On-screen graphic violence and torture experienced abroad were not uncommon to see. This film does not buck the cruelty and suffering trend, yet its story is domestic. Vacancy instead opts for a familiar and nostalgic setting as opposed to a grimy interpretation of a foreign destination. The Pinewood, which was specifically built for the film, evokes memories of those crummy, outdated motels visited during road trips.

After a deceitful mechanic (Ethan Embry) fails to fix their car during the long drive home, David and Amy take a short hike to the Pinewood. This remote motel is a tad charming but also completely out of fashion with its mid-century design. The many open-screen walls alone are a hint at the false sense of security. The Foxes hunker down in the honeymoon suite, of all places, for a mere minute or two before the requisite creepiness starts up. At first it is a series of spectral door knocks from the room next to theirs. In true fashion, the bespectacled front-desk clerk, Mason (Frank Whaley), reports the other room is empty. The audience, of course, knows better.

What Vacancy lacks in exposition it makes up for in prompt panic and stalking. The film runs around 80-minutes long, so the director wastes no time cutting to the chase, so to speak. Once David and Amy realize their predicament — in a clever and horrifying reveal, the couple turns on the TV and gets a glimpse of their imminent future — the film drops the act. Whaley and Embry’s characters continue the scare tactics before closing in for the kill. As to be expected, these Foxes are not so easy to catch.

Beckinsale and Wilson deliver credible performances as the hostile couple grieving their dead son. Their cutting remarks are one too many, yet the blame shifting and animosity make Amy and David feel a great deal more real. And as if their lives cannot get any worse, they end up the victims of snuff peddlers. Then there is Whaley’s Mason, who is very well the star of this film regardless of his lower billing. He wears three hats in the story; first he is the laidback and seemingly nonthreatening motel manager, then the smug ring leader of the snuff club, and finally the wavering last man standing whose whole outfit has come undone. Whaley is a man of many faces here, and each one is more unnerving than the last.

Without seeing the film, someone would be apt to lump Vacancy in with extreme aughts horror, such as Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes. Masked men breaking into motel rooms and murdering the guests is prime slasher material. However, even when taking the snuff element into account, Antal’s film focuses far less on carnage and physical torture and more on sheer thrills. The most graphic scenes are typically limited to the video footage seen on the TVs, whereas Amy and David’s ordeal is light on blood and gore. Anyone bothered by the protagonists’ plot armor would be advised to stick around for the nail-biting if not somewhat rushed third act. 

While viewers can infer just about everything that happens in Vacancy, its prequel lays out the origin of the snuff ring. Returning as the screenwriter in Vacancy 2: The First Cut, Mark L. Smith details how the business started under different ownership and at another motel. The unlucky guests this time are a couple (Agnes Bruckner, Trevor Wright) traveling cross country with the boyfriend’s jealous best friend (Arjay Smith). Director Eric Bross puts less emphasis on style than Antal, but he also does not pull punches. He supplies more violence and a slightly larger universe for the victims to roam around in, and on occasion the film offers a surprise development. As unnecessary as this prequel feels, it should satisfy slasher enthusiasts.

The first Vacancy takes the idea of sinister surveillance and runs with it. In addition, it makes an urban legend like snuff films scary again. The whole concept of motels recording their guests would likely not have the exact same effect today, given how devalued privacy has become. Yet in an era of horror so substantially influenced by its real-world anxieties, paranoia and distrust, the existence of something like Vacancy makes perfect sense.

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