|
Vacancy (2007)
Those were some stunning opening and closing credit sequences! From the very first frame, somehow... from the limited amount of his work I've seen, it reminded me of Hitchcock. Not the movie in it's entirety... but these credit sequences alone. I thought this film was absolutely soaked in atmosphere and tension. From the constant pitch-black visuals, to the hard-hitting sound design. Sort of... Panic Room, meets Identity. I was actually really tensed up during the initial scares (the knocking and light flickering) - it didn't help that my own power flickered during this timeframe (and of course my DVD player decided that it wouldn't remember the spot I left off at...) and my parents walking around upstairs created a knocking-like effect. The masks worn reminded me of the new Halloween feature. I thought the pacing was good, and the short runtime (80 minutes) allowed for a tight film. No fluff. I had heard the ending was terrible, but it wasn't so bad. I expected it to end this way, like most films of this nature do. A better ending would have boosted the rank a digit or so higher, but I'm okay with this. It was a weak point, but not as bad as it was made out to be by some critics. So in the end... strong start, never-boring, tense, atmospheric, with a decline in the end and a slight turn from horror to action.
7.8/10
|