VACANCY 2: THE FIRST CUT

Gordon and Reece manage the Meadow View Inn, a poorly visited outskirt motel. In reality, they barely make ends meet thanks to a traffic of pornographic films featuring the motel's unsuspecting guests, caught in intimate moments by the numerous cameras the two managers have placed everywhere. An unexpected opportunity pushes them to embark on the more lucrative path of snuff movies. So when Jessica, her boyfriend Caleb, and their friend Tanner decide to stay at the motel, a real nightmare begins for them as the guests themselves have become the unwitting stars of a show that offers death live. It is said that in recent years the porn industry has been in deep crisis due to the internet and home videos that have practically demolished the wall of production and distribution of the product; a second dark period after the one that characterized the early 1980s with the birth of the videotape that caused upheaval in the porn film industry. But what if the home video market also began to show signs of weakness? When discussing the usefulness of an operation like "Vacancy 2" we could just cling to this meta-reflection (absolutely unintended) on the crisis of a genre that translates to another genre. Producing a bit "perverse" home porn (the actors are unaware of it) is the lucrative activity of the managers of the Meadow View Inn, but if demand begins to be lower than supply, you have to come up with something new and then here are our "heroes" finding a safe haven in the production and trade of snuff movies, those films in which the death of the victims is not cinematic fiction. And to show us the choice by the motel managers to embark on this career in the production of snuff, Sony decided to spend an entire film, "Vacancy 2 - The Beginning," precisely. We are in the difficult climb on the glass, "Vacancy 2" is a shameless and useless commercial operation prepared in haste to exploit the success of the previous chapter, the beautiful "Vacancy" directed in 2007 by Nimrod Antal and starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson. This second chapter, which would actually be a prequel, is certainly not a bad film, in fact, for being a rushed direct-to-video, it holds up quite well, but it is really one of those films that ooze uselessness from every frame. The focus of interest lies entirely in the genesis of the motel managers' criminal activity, a genesis that occupies a third of the film and leaves a bitter taste. We discover that before Mr. Mason (the sleazy Frank Whaley of the first film) the motel was managed by a certain Gordon and that it was not called Pinewood Motel but Meadow View Inn, we discover the reason and circumstances that pushed the hoteliers to embark on the path of snuff and we also discover that the story is a bit more "full" than the simple personal sale of videos to trucker-customers. Unfortunately, however, all this is narrated with indifference and a marked sense of banality that then turns into improbability where we go to discover the internal mechanics that move the group of villains and the way that led them to collaborate. The remaining two-thirds of "Vacancy 2" are then a re-proposal of the same situation already shown in the first film, in which a trio of young people (soon reduced to a couple) must hide/defend themselves from the attackers, moving between the motel rooms and its surroundings because unable to move over large distances. Among the three victims, the only one to stand out for acting ability and character relevance is Jessica played by Agnes Bruckner ("The Mystery of the Woods," "Blood and Chocolate"), the typical defenseless girl forced to transform into a strong champion. The direction of Eric Bross ("Vampire Bats") is dynamic but still suffers from the director's television nature, while the dose of atrocities is moderate but effective, proving to be a bit more generous than the prototype. Suitable only for fans of the first film and simply for a matter of philological completeness; in general, however, negligible.