Rent Hotel of the Damned (2016)

Spoilers follow ... - Hotel of the Damned review by NP

A group of people are involved in a car crash and, injured, have little choice but to spend the night in an isolated hotel that has grim secrets of its own. Imagine if this group of people comprised of your usual catwalk, characterless model/actors posing and posturing as they go through the motions of the story in the hope it will lead to something more glamorous career-wise. How forgettable would it be, how uninspired, and how much we, the audience, would be willing their graphic deaths?

What makes the difference between ‘that’ kind of bland production, and ‘Hotel of the Damned’ is that these four characters are far more interesting. Bad lad Nicky (Louis Mandylor), recently released from prison, his loyal friend Jimmy (Peter Dobson), Nicky’s resentful daughter Eliza (Roxana Luca) and her junkie boyfriend Bogdan (Bogdan Marhodin) are a mixed bunch and have a good brutal chemistry (that occasionally produces a few good laughs).

The howling cannibals they encounter aren’t quite so well defined, nor do they need to be. A kind of cross between the antagonists you would meet in ‘The Descent (2005)’ and ‘Wrong Turn (2003)’, they are a convincingly feral, inhuman bunch. However, what lets them down a little is that scenes are sometimes too dark to make out what is going on, and Director Bobby Barbacioru’s camera flourishes (and flashbacks) sometimes make us question what we are seeing and, more importantly, what the characters are seeing. But these are only fleeting problems, and not enough to blight a very solid and enjoyable horror. Recommended.