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FILM INFO               >> MONTH OF RELEASE 15th June 07 FILM CREDITS Director Nimród Antal Starring Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry CONTENT ICONS

A car breaks down on a quiet, rural road and the stranded couple hike to the nearest motel.

There, a hotel manager who seems to have an Oedipal complex and a taxidermy hobby checks them into the honeymoon suite.

Even this man’s moustache screams voyeur, let alone the snuff movies and the hidden video cameras in the bedroom.

Vacancy is director Nimród Antal’s first English language film following Kontroll, his Hungarian debut - and yes, all the Hitchcock references are intentional.

We meet Beckinsale and Wilson’s couple in bickering and sour mood as they travel down their rural short cut. Realising they are the next on the sadist’s hit list, the couple must put aside their disdain to survive – as they discover, there’s nothing like a bit of shock therapy to get your marriage back on track.

Antal’s thriller can only be described as taut:
its cat and mouse games and minimal location create a new shock horror in the old school tradition.

Matthew Collington