On Vacancy: Not a Review, but Rather a Manifesto

So I just got done watching Vacancy. You know . . . the horror movie thing that just came out on dvd starring Luke Wilson and Kate "Jason's Other True Love" Beckinsdale and you know what? Despite all the negative crap I'd heard about it; despite the fact that it currently holds a 54% score on RottenTomatoes.com (officially labeling it a "Rotten" film) and that its average score on IMDB.com is only 6.5 out of 10; despite the "eh, it's OK"s and "it's about as good as anything else"s, I personally think it was pretty damned good. But you know what? I'm not going to tell you why because I have started to think that movie reviews are inherently hurtful for both the film in question as well as the viewing audience. Don't get me wrong though. I think my opinion is correct and, if you said that it is "eh, just okay," then yes, I think you're wrong too . . . . but I'll come back to that.

Okay, here's the deal. I've had enough classes on Film at this point and have watched enough movies over the course of my life to think (rightfully so or not) that I've got a pretty good historical perspective of film by this point. Maybe not enough to be a formal "critic," but certainly enough so that I can talk intelligently about a film within a historical and cultural context. Personally, despite being a writer, when it comes to movies I'm a sucker for good shot composition and editting. It isn't pretension that causes me to love The Godfather. Oh, and I hate Citizen Kane. Really. I hate it.

So that's a little bit of me and why I feel I'm qualified to speak to this. Now, as for Vacancy. Vacancy is in a rough spot that you've really got to appreciate. First of all, where's the gore? Its horror right? So where is it? Certainly there's not much of it in the movie . . . . maybe it all ended up in a Rob Zombie movie or Saw VII. Who knows? But its not in here. Next, its a movie about a pair of intended snuff film victims who fight back? You mean, possibly people who watch ultraviolent, exploitative films are in someway amoral? Well, considering that all the most of the under-25 crowd "loves themselves" a good Saw or Hostel, yeah, you just alienated half of your audience. I could go on. The point here though is that Vacancy was doomed from the start. It's a little piece of neo-Hitchocockian popcorn-friendly fluff that knows where it sits on the horror/thriller timeline and who isn't afraid of thumbing its nose at all the junkfood that the kiddies love to gobble up this time of the year at the movie theater. But that's just me.

But that IS just me.

I want to believe that we are still capable of making great art, whether it be a movie as great as The Godfather, The Third Man, or Casablanca; or a book as telling of the human experience as Ulysses or Great Expectations or Hamlet. As an artist, I refuse to believe that our ability to create "great works" is exhausted. Maybe I'm an idealist. Maybe to be an artist you HAVE to be an idealist. That could be true. It would certainly explain why I thought Black Dahlia was one of the better movies of last year. And so what if I am? I'm glad that I'm compelled to recommend almost every book I read to my friends. I'm proud of it. It shows I'm not as negative as some of you think I am.

I think the key for any viewer is to presuppose that that movie is good and that there is a fundamentally human idea that the film maker is trying to convey to you. Doing that will allow you to enter into a new type of relationship with the film where you actively look at each facet of the film to find that easter egg that you are expecting to find instead of lethargically allowing the movie to simply "wash over" you.