Weekly Review -- No smoking, vandalizing or eventual recording, please

Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2008) -- We all knew it was coming. As soon as Nimród Antal's 2007 chiller Vacancy became a moderate success, a sequel or prequel or some other addition would undoubtedly be in the works. A couple of years later, here we are, with a movie so inferior to the original that it is instantly forgettable. Jessica (Agnes Bruckner), her boyfriend Caleb (Trevor Wright) and his best friend Tanner (Arjay Smith) are on their way to Jessica's parents' farm. After realizing that they cannot quite show up at the dead hour of night, they decide to stay at the Meadow View Inn, unaware that dirty bathrooms and bad reception will soon be meaningless when compared to the motel employees' proclivity for snuff... The entire movie feels obligatory and forced, mostly due to one-dimensional characters, boring acting and cheap, plasticized cinematography. Vacancy's characters had a poignant background that made them resilient and gave them survivor potential, whereas the prequel's leads are not sufficiently thought out to make us care. The entire expository set-up for the characters' situation seems to be propelled by the screenplay's need for one, rather than serving the purpose of being one of the story's key aspects. Bruckner is a pretty tough heroine at times, but also bland on occasion, generally bringing nothing new to the slasher genre; Wright is convincing for what he has to work with, while Smith hits all the right notes with the juiciest role of the bunch. The villains are threatening when they are not being stereotypically over the top and when they are not stealing the Strangers' disguises. The movie looks as though someone had shot it with a personal video camera, which might not necessarily be a bad thing, but which is far from good if the method overrides the story's own effectiveness. All in all, Vacancy 2 is your run-of-the-mill horror film. Stick with the original and give this one a miss.

4/10