#22 - Vacancy 2: The First Cut - 2008

This week is my first of three horror weeks. I have included a few I have not seen yet with some others that I love. The first film I chose to watch this week mostly because of the short run time (86 minutes) was Vacancy 2: The First Cut. I chose this one because it was 10:50pm at night before I started it and I needed to watch a short one last night and this was the shortest one of the week. Below is my detailed review.

This is a film I had listed which I did not believe I had saw but after starting it I realized I had actually already seen the first half of this film. That is rare for me to not remember that but in any matter it was nice because this way I would get to finish the film even though I cant recall why I didn't before? Its weird.

Since this is a straight to dvd horror film sequel, actually prequel, there isn't a single actor in this film that anyone reading this would probably know. With that being said Ill still list my favorite ones even though they were all pretty much equal in my mind. I enjoyed the front desk attendant the most, his name was Gordon and he was very calm and creepy and played his part well and then Smith was second on my list just because the guy played a psycho pretty well. All the other characters were decent but no other standouts to mention.

This film starts with tiny messages referring to the murders in 2008 at the Meadow View Hotel and then states this was the first one referring to this film, hence the title Vacancy 2: The FIRST Cut. At the beginning of the film we see newlyweds who check into the Meadow View Hotel and right off the bat we see the hotel staff watching them on their hidden videos they placed in the cabin in their back office. The staff, which consists of two individuals Gordon the front desk attendant and Reese. Gordon played by David Moscow is actually Ashton Kutcher's best friend in the movie "Just Married" and Reese who looked familiar to me played in the thriller "Cloverfield". Those are really the only two actors I even remotely recognized in this film. Back to the film itself. Gordon and Reese make these hidden video's and sell them to a local trucker.

After the newlywed's take off another car pulls up with a younger female passenger and a guy with a hat pulled down real low. He is a bit older and checks in under the name Smith only. Gordon sets him up in Cabin 6 and as Reese comes back to the office as they both prepare to watch what the believe to be another sexual encounter between unaware guests. This time its different though, very different. What they see is the man placing a large plastic bag on the bed and then the young women coming out of the restroom in her bra and panties. It looks as though she was most likely a prostitute and he asks her to lay on her stomach on the bed and as he gets on top of her Gordan says while watching the video "what is that" referring to the bulge in the back of his pants. Right then Smith pulls out a large knife and brutally stabs the woman repeatedly until he eventually kills her. He then takes his clothing off, all of her clothing, and throws in all other evidence into the plastic bag wraps it up and washes up and prepares to leave. This obviously shocked Gordon and Reese.


As Smith goes to leave the cabin Gordon and Reese are standing outside their door and Reese hits him with the butt of his shotgun. Next shot we see is the local trucker showing up to purchase more films and as he notices blood on the butt of the shotgun Gordon and Reese explained what happened and show him where the guy is. He is tied up to a chair in Cabin 6. As the trio walk over there they are talked into by the murderer himself into letting him join there operation and after the truck driver confirms that there is indeed a market for snuff films like this they cautiously let him join forces with them.

Next scene is a couple and the guy's friend traveling in a truck with a trailer attached who stop at Meadow View for the night. After arriving there and checking in Gordon made a comment to Caleb "if you need anything just scream" that eventually rubbed him the wrong way. At that point he had no idea what was about to take place. As they were given the keys to Cabin 6 Caleb and Jessica enter the room but they cannot locate his friend Tanner. Turns out Tanner snuck in through the window but it wasn't until he snuck into the room next door did they realize what they got themselves into. As he went into the room and turned on the tv he saw Caleb and Jessica making out in the next room and confronted them immediately. As Gordon and Reese were watching them immediately knew they had to do something so Smith and Reese headed out to the cabin to confront them. After a failed attempt to get in the car and leave they were stuck and Caleb's tires were shot out by Reese. The three headed back into the cabin but not for long. As the men roamed outside they wore masks that reminded me of the killer in the Strangers, very creepy looking and eerie.

The killers eventually catch Caleb while they try to sneak out a window of the room and they tie him up and stab him to death. Tanner and Jessica are forced to escape in the woods and are given chase by Smith and Reese. After locating a house in the woods they enter and ask the elderly couple to call the cops but the man who is a local and knows Gordon actually called Gordon himself and the trio showed up to take Tanner and Jessica back. Gordan had said they were thieves and the home owner was happy to hand them over. His wife however was more skeptical and after she said they weren't going anywhere and went to call the cops Smith freaked out and shot and killed the couple and a chase was on for Tanner and Jessica.


They capture both of them and tie up Jessica in the chair. You don't see Tanner for a little while but we would learn his fate later. Jessica managed to break free of the handcuffs behind the chair and actually broke off a wood sliver and unbeknown est to Smith she stabs him in the neck and escapes. After hiding under the cabins she see's nails poking through the floorboard above and actually cuts herself. Down under there she also see's Caleb who is dead and Tanner who is obviously dying with blood coming out of his mouth. Reese goes in there to find Jessica after hearing something and she uses Caleb's body to push Reese up into the nails and kill him. After this she takes his gun and goes into the god awful pool at the hotel and while hiding underwater she emerges to kill Gordon. Smith gives chase to her and she ends up battling him in the trailer behind Calebs truck and after setting fire to Smith she makes it out alive while it looks as though she had killed the last of them. The film ends with her hitching a ride and then showing cops scouring the Motel the next morning for the crime scene. In one final scene we see a new motel and then a shot of the truck driver and Smith with a badly burned face sitting in an office with videotaped feeds behind them as they had obviously taken up business elsewhere.


This film was pretty good but not nearly as scary as the original. The original was unique and terrifying and one reason I liked it so much was it was one of those films that made you feel it could really happen and made you think what would you do if that really happened to you. This film didn't really capture that as much for me and although there were some kill scenes throughout the worst by far and most brutal was the original one in the beginning so it kind of lost steam for me in that affect. The story was decent though and it never really lagged but considering its short run time that probably helped that out a bit. If this had a few more kill scenes that were more terrifying and scary I would probably give this a higher grade but with that not being the case I would have to give this film the lowest grade Ive given a film since the start of my marathon, a C.