Vacancy
Screen Gems | Release Date: April 20, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Vacancy is a schlock surprise: a no-frills motel-hell slasher film -- with a bit of soul. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
For the most part, this movie hits the right notes and gives its audience a dose of white-knuckle tension. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's a sordid but expert shocker. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Stylish and surprisingly effective thriller. Read full review
75
New York PostLou 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." Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Succeeds where so many other recent horror pictures have failed: It consistently scares you silly. Read full review
70
Village VoiceTim Grierson
Antal smartly adheres to the no-frills demands of B-movie horror, eliciting impressive chills from old-fashioned suffocating dread rather than the now usual gore. And Wilson and Beckinsale superbly execute everything that's required of their characters--namely, yelling and running. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesSam Adams
A ruthlessly efficient stalk-and-slash machine. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Making an assured transition to Hollywood after his Hungarian cult sensation "Kontroll," director Nimród Antal gets his business done with an efficiency that recalls "Red Eye," another thriller that clocks in under 90 minutes. But efficiency isn't everything, and Antal sacrifices too much in order to sustain tension. Read full review
67
Baltimore SunGene Seymour
A mangy-looking mongrel with a lot of familiar markings and a little more on the ball than you'd expect at first glance. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Vacancy could have been some sort of satirical masterpiece had this whole scenario been finally revealed as an extreme form of couple's therapy designed to get Beckinsale and Wilson back together. Read full review
63
USA TodayScott Bowles
It isn't the Bates Motel, but the Pinewood Motel has enough creepy visitors and creaky floors to make Vacancy worth checking into for 90 minutes. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Short, sharp and to the point, Vacancy has a single goal, and that is to scare the hell out of you. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
At its worst, Vacancy is merely the kind of taut B-chiller they don't make any more, other than to riff on them in "Grindhouse." Read full review
60
Film ThreatMichael Ferraro
It's rare to see Luke Wilson in such a serious role. He does an admirable job of ignoring his mostly comedic background but the real scene-stealer is Frank Whaley. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de Semlyen
This stripped-down chiller has some decent jump-frights, but a dearth of memorable moments. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
If "Psycho" and "Peeping Tom" are the seminal killer-as-voyeur movies, Vacancy is the nasty little runt offspring with no other purpose in life but to gnaw on you. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
While the sadism doesn't stoop -- rise? -- to the level of the "Saw" horror-thrillers, Vacancy does have a name cast. Read full review
50
VarietyJohn Anderson
At the risk of spoiling anything, Vacancy, is one strange movie. It ends so precipitously, one can only assume it's a setup for the sequel (which, given all that happens, seems a mite unlikely). Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
This ghastly swatch of pulp horror is compelling at the most basic level, but so little is going on in it that you might as well be watching a sadistic lab experiment performed on mice. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It is a fairly routine exercise in New Millennium movie mayhem. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Vacancy, in the end, simply offers a particularly aggressive brand of couples counseling. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Wilson and Beckinsale, as the couple on the rocks, do their damnedest to go along for the creepfest, but nothing in Vacancy manages to come anywhere close to the quiet and steadily mounting dread of the real thing, much less the purview of Norman Bates or his beloved mother. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
For horror fans who appreciate a bit of craft with their second-rate experiences -- Paul Haslinger's fear-mongering score is terrific for what it's worth -- this might merit a future late-night rental. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
80 minutes of formulaic unpleasantness isn't even close to my idea of a good time, and I doubt that Hitchcock himself could have done very much with Mark L. Smith's script. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
This banal horror retread involves a couple of critters flailing inside a sticky trap for what is, in effect, the big-screen equivalent of a roach motel. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
This is a no-cable, no-wake-up-call, cash-only dump of a film, where you breathe through a hankie and bring your own Lysol. Read full review
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