Horror anyone?

Yesterday I got the chance to watch Vacancy with my girlfriend. Vacancy is a new horror movie about a couple going through marriage trouble who get stranded in a dead end town with nowhere to go. The characters, having exhausted all other options, decide to stay at a rundown motel which will prove to be a huge mistake. After some creepy door knocking and a tape, that shows people being murdered in the room in which they are staying, the couple realize their mistake. The rest of the movie surrounds around their attempt to stay alive through a slew of onslaughts by crazed maniacs bent on murder and mayhem. In the end (yes I will give away the ending, since I really wouldn't advise seeing this movie in the first place), the husband fakes his death, the wife kills all of the bad guys, everyone else is dead, and they walk into the sunset together, having worked through their marriage problems.

While the movie has its moments of fright, it seemed to come across as a big budget attempt to exhaust nearly every cliche known to the horror genre.

I noticed things by watching this movie. First, I think that I have watched enough horror movies by now to be able to say that I am well acquainted with them. I could probably claim to be apart of, if not just associated to, this affinity group. A person who had never seen a horror movie would have never have noticed the things which I noticed, which made the movie very cliche and mundane in my eyes. They would have perhaps seen this movie as a scary representation of reality. This made me realize how affinity groups have specific definitions for excellence.

Within the horror genre, it is expected for a horror movie to be truly influential, it must push the boundaries. It must be original. Originality is apart of all great horror movies. The Exorcist was the first major picture to explore the paranormal world of demon possession; Chucky was the first to explore the fear of inanimate objects taking on life in its purely evil form; The great Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds was the first to play on the human fear of wild animals. All of these movies had something that made them unique; something that set them apart from the rest, and thus, made them scary in relation to all other competing horror movies. Originality is what made these movies truly excellent in the eyes of the horror movie affinity group.

In order to understand why this movie was so cliche, you must first understand a recent trend in horror movies. There have been several movies as of late that have played on the very fear that this movie exploits. In fact there have been SO many movies as of late that it has, in my not so humble opinion, killed this plot line. Last years Hostel surrounded around a creepy hostel where travelers come for rest and never end up leaving. The successful Saw I, II, III, and soon to be IV have all played on the fears of being stuck in a place of horror where they are forced to kill each other to survive. These movies have single handedly exhausted exhausted the "let's get stranded in a creepy place where everyone tries to kill us," sub-genre of horror. Perhaps, if this movie had come along 10 years earlier, it would have been received better. Instead it is reserved to be a dollar theatre movie at best.

I also noticed a plot line in this movie that is a typical myth of society. The myth of the value of a challenge is very prevalent in this movie. The couple faced insurmountable odds (almost TOO insurmountable and perfectly crafted in most places). Their marriage is failing and they are stranded in the the middle of nowhere, with the added fact that everyone is trying to kill them. They overcome these odds, piece back together their marriage, kill the bad-guys, save the good-guys, and walk off into the sunset; having learned never to stay in a crappy motel again and to never go off the beaten path.

Overall, I learned a lot of things by observing this movie, but still found it mundane, overproduced, and cliche. I would give it a C- in rating, and would not recommend it to anyone who knows horror movies and wants something new and origial. That is something Vacancy is not, new and original.