Retarded rip-off of Ils.

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It's not really like Ils.

I don't see how it's like Ils at all - except possibly the initial creepy bit.

In Ils (spoiler - the ending of Ils) it's just a bunch of kids in the end who randomly target a house for fun whereas in Vacancy it's a whole set up trap.



If anything, it made me think of Hostel.

They did sabotage the radio, look closely - the cop pulls the radio mouthpiece out and the lead is cut.

You must not have paid much attention, because the killers cut the radio.

I just posted this on another thread, but: In small, rural places out in the middle of nowhere, like the setting of this film, it's not unusual for a police department to have only one officer on duty during graveyard shifts on certain nights when they expect crime or calls to be at their lowest. Heck, in some little three-shack towns, where nothing ever happens, they may only have an officer or two. In my girlfriend's hometown, you can literally count the number of officers on one hand (four).

As far as the woman not staying in the attic:
(1) When she talked to the operator a second time, the operator said "We already sent one cop," as if she wasn't going to bother to send another. And clearly that was the case, because no more police arrived until after the climax. So maybe the woman figured she was all on her own.
(2) Thinking she was in it by herself, she had to be thinking what would have ran across all of our minds: "If I don't get out of here, they'll find me up here eventually." That, and "I need to get my husband some help if I can still save him." She made her move when she thought the coast was clear.

I found Vacancy's antagonists to be some of the most sensible and realistic that I've ever seen in horror films. I also enjoyed it more than Ils, possibly because I've seen it first, but also because it just makes more sense to me and has more of a point.

Hello! Spoiler!

I will be your Sherpa up the mountain of gayness.

This movie was just a bad rip-off of Ils. Possibly also a bit of Psycho, regarding the whole homicidal motel manager thing.

You need to watch more films and read more because Ils and Psycho weren't the first of its kind. A real-life 'murder' hotel with secret tunnels, odd hallways, hidden torture rooms and a lot of murders: H. H. Holmes's "Castle" hotel between 1886 and 1889. Holmes confessed to only four, out of estimated 200 murders (the estimate was based on bones found on premises).

In any case, I don't see how you could compare Ils and Vacancy. The only thing these films have in common is there is a couple in each film, but one is in a relationship and the other are married (estranged, but still).

The rest? Nah. Ils sets in a summer country house and Vacancy in a motel. Ils and Vacancy's antagonists and their motives are drastically different, too. One couple survived and the other didn't.

Psycho and Vacancy? The only thing they have in common is that both set in an isolated motel.

First off, haven't we seen enough movies, where one lonely cop shows up to supposedly help the protagonists but ends up murdered because of sheer stupidity?

It was in the middle of nowhere. What did you expect? An army?

They didn't show that the police radio was sabotaged, at least not as far as I can remember.

They did. The officer even commented on it. After he noticed the cut radio cord, Amy asked "What's the matter?" He put the radio down and said: "They're trying to make sure we can't leave."

Why was the woman too damn stupid to stay up in the damn attic or closet or wherever that was where she was hiding when they killed her husband? Didn't she realize that since a cop had come by to check things and didn't return to the police station most likely they'd soon send out more cops to find out what happened to him since he wasn't heard from again. All she had to do was wait.

What makes you so sure the police would send another before the men have a chance to investigate the attic? Bearing in mind the officer was missing only for a couple of hours.

At the start of the film, a clock reads 1:30AM, right? Judging by the characters' clothes, it was summer. So it's easy to assume that the officer showed up at 3AM or 4AM and the sunrise arrived at 5AM. Since it's a standard procedure to check if an officer doesn't radio in between two and five hours (depending on each state, of course), Amy would have to wait at least six hours - at around 12PM - before another police officer could show up to investigate.

Six hours would be long enough for the motel manager and his pals to investigate every part of the motel and its premises.

Amy was clearly aware she was in a place her enemies knew inside out. They didn't even try to hide her husband's body, did they? They evidently knew the local police's response time, knew the surroundings, knew the rhythm of the area. It was Amy - who didn't know the area at all - versus their local knowledge, and she knew it.

Her instinct would be get the hell away from the premises ASAP, hence her attempt to flee. Not wise, but in the scheme of the whole thing, it was acceptable.

I wouldn't know what to do if I were in her shoes, to be honest. I'd probably stay in the attic and hope like hell they wouldn't investigate the attic. If they did, I'd make sure the trap door stay shut, but what could stop them shooting at me through the ceiling? I'd be dead in the attic and no one would ever know what had happened to us. Yeah, better to get the hell out of there and hopefully, the sunrise would bring me to a driver who's on his way to work or something.

When will Hollywood understand that you CAN make truly frightening and convincing horror films without making the characters so stupid and having them make such illogical and dumb decisions?

Name a film that has characters making right and logical decisions. Because I'm pretty sure you couldn't name one. I can't. :D Vacancy had some touches other films didn't have. Such as David trying to free the police officer's rifle which was locked to the car. The motel manager's removal of a phone cord (in other films, villains - stupidly - just cut the cord).

I did wonder why they had to run in front of the motel when they could run round a side of the motel and escape into the darkness. Or when the police officer turned up, why didn't they escape from the room towards the woods or a road where the police would meet them after departing the motel? So easy to be an armchair critic, though, because I know I'd make wrong or irrational decisions if I were ever in that highly stressful situation.

Actually they did show the radio was destroyed