I caught a screening of this last night and the above average DVDTalk review is spot-on, IMO: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=27659

The buzz:

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Vacancy is a schlock surprise: a no-frills motel-hell slasher film -- with a bit of soul.

New York Post Lou Lumenick
The acting is solid, especially Whaley, whose nasty variation on Norman Bates is his showiest role since he memorably played Kevin Bacon's assistant in "Swimming With Sharks."

ReelViews James Berardinelli
For the most part, this movie hits the right notes and gives its audience a dose of white-knuckle tension.

I hope this wasn't actually printed as such... Kevin Spacey was in Swimming with Sharks.

And I would've settled for seeing this since the local theater didn't get Hot Fuzz, except... This didn't show up either! Geez.

Its either feast or famine during these movie releases... Weeks go by with nothing, then this week comes with a few movies that Im looking forward to with Vacancy being one of them. This will be a nice little Sunday matinee movie for this weekend.

I just caught this today in a nearly empty matinee....I think the heavy rain in So. Cal is a contributor to that.

Anyways, I was actually really entertained by this movie. The snuff films were really creepy and the whole vibe and atmosphere of the movie left me with chills down my spine.

Exactly -- I found it to be a taut, effective thriller accomplishing what it set out to do.

I thought the first thirty minutes or so were pretty good (up to the point when Luke first plays the tapes on the VCR and they realize what's going on) then most of what happened after that was basically just the same old chase and stalk scenes that you see in a zillion other stale horror movies.

I agree with what one review said that this is basically HOSTEL for nice, respectable folks. There's some snuff/torture film footage in the first half to scare and disturb your average moviegoer, but after that the film retreats into becoming just a routine mainstream thriller.

Dumbest scene of all was when:

Yep, this started off decently until, as Perkinsun mentioned, it quickly degenerates.

This was either the single greatest movie I have ever seen, or one of the most cliche, trite pieces of writing I have ever encountered.

I am, as of yet, undecided.

I liked the movie, but I wish I hadn't seen the trailer beforehand. Like most modern trailers, it's a miniature version of the entire movie, and left few if any surprises unrevealed.

I'm absolutely amazed that anyone is saying anything good about this movie. The trailer made it look like yet another trite cash-in on a subgenre that has long since pounded itself into the ground.

This movie was good, if you are in that "I want to turn my brain off mood".

As directed by the guy who did Kontroll. (Though, that may be double edged, since the guys name is Nimród.)

I agree that it was better than avg though I was disappointed with the end. I really liked the title sequence esp with that music. Am I the only one who laughs a little whenever he hears the name of the director??

Yes, I chuckled a little when I saw the director's name was Nimrod. Didn't Bugs Bunny use that as an insult in Warner Bros. Cartoons?

My friend and I also noticed that the part of the "big cockroach" in the hotel was being played by a Madagascar Hissing Roach! How the heck did one of those get in there? I'm assuming they wanted a really big household roach crawling around in the room and figured most of the audience wouldn't know the difference.

I had not intention of watching this flick until I found out Nimrod Antel directed it....and then I had to deliberate whether or not to see it. I haven't yet, but I every once in a while, the thought "but he directed Kontroll and that was really good" pops into my head and I consider seeing it.

I liked it, quite a bit actually. Its fast paced, the characters were reasonably smart, and it had me learning forward in my seat most of the time. Catch a matinee of it if you aren't sure.. But its worth seeing.

I really enjoyed this too. I was kind of excited to see it, but it still exceeded my expectations. I liked that the main characters weren't cardboard cutouts and had some real tension building even before everything kicked in.

I really thought Luke Wilson did a hell of a job with this role after primarily being a comedic actor. Beckinsdale was good, a little bland, but still better than usual from what I've seen. She looked FANTASTIC though, holy crap she was hot. Good flick I thought, 4/5.

I agree. The small amount of time invested in knowing some detail about Luke and Kate's characters made me care about them just enough that once the action starts, I wanted them to make it thru. I thought the pacing was perfect. Had it run any longer, I don't feel I would have liked this film more than I do.

You seem surprised by this. That woman would look hot in any getup. I think she's a good actress who hasn't been very good at choosing roles. She's chosen the right roles to make her a bigger star with bigger paydays. But she hasn't chosen the best roles in terms of actual acting. I think she'll give her best performance in her upcoming film Winged Creatures. She's also starring in the film Whiteout at FBI agent Carrie Stetko.

True. But I've seen her most in Underworld, where obviously her body is amazing, but the face with all the makeup and crap doesn't do much for me. Just looking like a regular woman for the first time in a while (that I've seen her in) was just a little more surprising than I expected.

Just saw a matinee of this movie. I'm really not in to horror or slasher flicks, they generally bore me. This was worth seeing just for Kate Beckinsale. The woman is too hot. I'll watch Click just to see her.

I'll rate this movie as a C+ but someone really into the genre would rate it higher because it was really well done. Just not too terribly original and too much given away in the trailer. Both comments already mentioned.

The end lost it for me on 2 counts:

Yeah, too much in the trailer. I liked the direction and performances but it was all very familiar. People have complimented its shortness but I think it could have easily done another 10 minutes (and packed the previous 60 down a little bit tighter and gotten some more stuff in) without wearing out the premise or the audience. Sure, you want thrillers to be concise, but 90m is not pushing it by any stretch of the imagination.

Just saw this last night on BD. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Genuine suspense and great scares. It felt "real" (like this shit could actually happen) and that added a bit to it. Still formulaic at times, but done very well.

I thought much of the early reactions of the characters were well done. For example, Luke didn't freak out right away when weird stuff starting happening, like you or I, he was pissed. It was an excellent natural build up and although the ending was lacking, the rest of it was very well done.

Solid rental, and surprising.

I'll just say that I'm glad I rented this. Started out ok. Then it just went the wrong way in the end.

Started out really good and scary but the last half wasnt as good.