Vacancy

Vacancy is a schlock surprise: a no-frills motel-hell slasher film -- with a bit of soul.

It's a sordid but expert shocker.

Vacancy is a schlock surprise: a no-frills motel-hell slasher film -- with a bit of soul.

For the most part, this movie hits the right notes and gives its audience a dose of white-knuckle tension.

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.

A ruthlessly efficient stalk-and-slash machine.

A ruthlessly efficient stalk-and-slash machine.

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."

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.

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.