An Empty Room Awaits

Another luckless couple, or a prior luckless couple, 'cause it's a prequel, run afoul of the dangerous motel in 2008's Vacancy 2: The First Cut. It's the prequel to Vacancy, a movie I saw many years ago with Trisa. It had Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson and had some effectively creepy qualities. The prequel starts as kind of an intriguing, wicked procedural but drifts into homogeneous slasher territory.

So here's how it all began, how a couple of pervy guys who video taped their motel guests facilitated a serial killer changing their setup into a snuff film factory.

I have a theory that some people like to watch others in private because they feel out of touch with their own humanity, like they need to see how people behave when they believe they're unobserved so they can learn how to behave when they're unobserved. My thoughts are mostly influenced, of course, by the epidemic of voyeurism in Japan. There's not much exploration into the psychology of the perverts in Vacancy 2 but it is interesting watching them figure out the logistics of putting together a snuff motel.

Then a trio of pretty young people arrive and things start to unravel. At first, the manager doesn't want to touch them because, with three, there's a greater chance of one of them getting away. Yet when the three discover the cameras in their rooms, the killers decide to toy with them, thus increasing the odds of one of them getting away. Of course, it being a prequel, one assumes that none of them do, but it kind of seems like the movie forgets it's a prequel at one point. Anyway, it's a diverting little slasher.

Twitter Sonnet #1852

The blameless, nameless dog devours hands.
A fateful farm conduced the meeting men.
A set of colours blurred above the bands.
A modern law would wash the mind of sin.
A lack of questions turns a hostage back.
A curving pistol spent its round behind.
The hand below the tray is going slack.
Disin'trest crashed the tablet's rind.
Persuasive guests command an extra room.
Withholding candy bars provokes a row.
A sketchy killer shared a fish of doom.
A glass of milk reflects its ancient cow.
The time remained to take recorded beds.
The thought of hands consumed the restless heads.