film's ending, which he called "a disappointment", writing, "I don't know when I've seen a thriller this unpretentiously well-crafted sputter to so inconsequential an end." Writing for The Guardian, feature writer Rob Mackie favorably compared the film's opening to "classic-period Hitchcock, and Psycho in particular", writing, "What makes Nimrod Antal's film genuinely scary and gripping is that the script and acting are far better than [...] your routine slasher/shocker knock-off." He further noted that "[t]here are plenty of shocks and surprises" and described the film as "psychological horror rather than gorefest," although he expressed ambiguity over the film's abrupt ending: "One of the biggest shocks in Vacancy is that, after 84 minutes, it ends. Just like that." In a 2007 episode of Ebert and Roeper, film critic Richard Roeper gave the film a negative review, calling it an "uninspired, unoriginal, and chills-free thriller", and was disappointed with the central characters, saying "apparently these two have never seen any scary movies because they make rookie mistakes" and "do one stupid thing after another so the movie can keep going." He concluded that "with two appealing leads and a nifty opening credits sequence, Vacancy seems like it has potential" but that it was ultimately "a slick and lazy effort." Empire magazine awarded the film three out of five stars, praising its director as "genuinely good at this stuff, honing mercilessly in on faces in extreme close-up and investing ordinary items [...] with disproportionate levels of menace", and calling the film "a lean and slightly unusual genre pic" that has "Psycho's crimson fingerprints all over it", but concluded that while the film "starts off strongly", ultimately "the build-up is better than the main event." Prequel Vacancy 2: The First Cut was released in 2008. Written by Mark L. Smith, and directed by Eric Bross, it serves as a prequel, and focuses on how the motel's employees started their tortures. The film stars Agnes Bruckner and Trevor Wright. See also List of films featuring surveillance References External links 2007 films 2007 horror films 2000s mystery films 2000s thriller films American independent films American mystery films American horror thriller films 2000s English-language films American psychological thriller films American serial killer films American slasher films Films about snuff films Screen Gems films Films directed by Nimród Antal Films scored by Paul Haslinger Films set in 2007 Films set in California Films set in motels 2000s American