Film Review: Vacancy 2 (2009)

Writer Mark L. Smith`s Vacancy Prequel Gets the Job Done

Mar 8, 2009 Andrea Beca

A film review of Vacancy 2, the prequel to 2007's Vacancy. This time around, audiences learn how it all began.

In the 2007 film Vacancy, a couple on their way from point A to point B grow too exhausted to travel any further in their car, so they decide to stop at a roadside motel. It isn’t long before they discover that not only are they being filmed while in their room, but also that the sick-minded men who are watching them also plan to kill them, as they have been doing to motel patrons for years.

Writer Mark L. Smith is back with Vacancy 2, but rather than continuing the story from where audiences were left off, he decided to instead travel back in time to show everyone where and how the horror really started.

Premise of Vacancy 2 Quick and Dirty

Essentially, what you learn is that a couple of guys running a motel (David Moscow, Brian Klugman) have cameras set up so that they can watch their patrons having sex. Then one day the patron who comes through proves to have a different fetish – as they watch him with his lady friend, he murders her for pleasure.

The most surprising part of this is that after knocking the killer (Scott G. Anderson) unconscious and examining the situation, these men are so quickly convinced that killing their hotel patrons would be a great way to make money in the underground film world.

Prequel Still Effective, Actress Bruckner Fights Hard

While everything happens very quickly, and the film has rather weak storyline to work with, it is still effective in showing audiences how the owners of the Pinewood Motel came to be serial killers. And it certainly isn’t lacking in suspense.

The best part of the movie is the intense chase and battle between Jessica (Agnes Bruckner) and the murderous hotel owners. After they kidnap her boyfriend and his best friend, she is left to fend for herself, and she certainly gives them a run for their money. She is the opposite of the stereotypical dumb blonde – she’s strong, smart, and she grew up the daughter of a hunter, so she has some hidden skills as well.

Overall, while Vacancy 2 does not measure up to the surprisingly fun and well-made original, Vacancy (starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale), it’s still worth a watch, even if just to see Bruckner kick some murderer butt. In the end, though, you will be left with a lot of questions in regards to the logic of the film - it simultaneously explains the origins of Vacancy and makes the "sequel", so to speak, impossible.

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