Imagine you knew someone called Nimrod? You wouldn't expect a lot from that person, would you? I mean, it's become a synonym for goofball.

I dunno, just a thought.

Anyway, I wasn't expecting a lot from Nimrod Antal's Vacancy, a horror that's so formulaic, you could probably re-construct it in your front room with a spanner, a cereal box and a dead hitchhiker. Warring couple? Check. Broken down car? Check. Spooky garage attendant? Check. Isolated motel? Check. Shit decor? Check.

However, this movie carries an unexpected gravitas. It's weightier than it perhaps has a right to be and all because the two lead actors turned up to work and, with some undoubted eliciting from the old Nimrod, decided to turn a workaday thriller into what is, really, quite a taut drama.

Luke Wilson and Kate Neckingsale star as an unhappy couple making their way across the country to an undetermined location. However, when their car develops a problem on a deserted country road, the pair are forced to take refuge in a motel that even Norman Bates would look twice at, and, once ensconced, slowly come to realise that their room has been the setting for more than just the odd bit of kip.

And so begins a familiar fight for survival. However, the performance of the two leads lend an authenticity to the movie that even the crappy motel manager, a piss-poor man's William H Macy, whoever the fuck he actually is, struggles to dent, and, all in all, it actually feels comparatively plausible.

That said, for all of that, it is still painting-by-numbers and when did you last see a masterpiece that was that?

Vacancy: 6/10.