Movie: No Vacancy

 

Production Year: 2012

 

Tubi Provided Summary: When 7 friends encounter car troubles on a road trip, they are welcomed by a group of seemingly helpful people, who may have an ulterior motive.

 

Film Can Be Accessed At: https://tubitv.com/movies/507598/no-vacancy?start=true

 

Does This Movie Pass The Bechdel Test: No

 

Main Character Analysis:

 

  • Claire: 
    • Claire is written as the standard blonde female character. She fulfills the role of the girlfriend to the leader of the group. Claire’s most prominent trait is her consistent crying and overenthusiastic responses to her friend’s deaths. She spends the majority of the film in shock, screaming, crying, hiding behind her boyfriend, Todd, or making rash decisions that ultimately put herself in danger.
    • Claire is the standard depiction of the feminine role. She is highly sensitive and compassionate as well as lacks true leadership, independence, aggressive, or assertive traits. She follows her boyfriend constantly and does whatever he says, even if she doubts him.
  • Brandy:
    • Brandy is one of two people of color in the film. She is depicted as an independent but very self-absorbed character. Brandy is driven by her self-preservation, but shows little to no character development aside from her attention to her physical appearance and drive for sex. Because of this, her character is rather two-dimensional and difficult to analyze.
    • Brandy shows an interesting range of feminine and masculine traits. She exemplifies femininity in her compassion and affection, but also exemplifies masculinity in her independence and assertiveness with her boyfriend, Jordan. 
  • Anna:
    • Anna is the most sexualized of the female protagonists. Her character is introduced by discussing that she would like to star in pornography. Anna is also very different from the other girls in the movie. For instance, when she and her boyfriend, Ryan, have sex, The camera is focused on her back or side profile to show that she is the dominant of the pair while she consensually slaps and chokes him. 
    • Anna is a primarily masculine character. Despite her oversexualized nature, Anna displays dominance, force, and a strong personality. She is straightforward, refuses to censor her opinions, and is willing to fight for her position and take risks in social settings. 
  • Todd:
    • Todd is the titular leader of the protagonist group. He is the standard popular young adult. Todd is highly attractive, is at the helm of his friend group, and is the one that people flock to in social settings. Whenever a decision needs to be made in the movie, the protagonists turn to Todd for his input and follow his directions. 
    • Todd, unlike the other male characters, exemplifies mainly feminine qualities. He shows the masculine qualities of leadership and willingness to take a stand but spends most of the movie comforting Claire. He reveals himself to be emotional, sensitive to others, compassionate, and warm. 
  • Jordan:
    • Jordan is the second of the two people of color in the film. Jordan is depicted as the stereotypical black male. His scripts rely heavily on stereotyped black behavior such as using slang and discussing anything related to basketball. In addition, Jordan is rather flirtatious with Norah, the bartender, in spite of his relationship with Brandy. 
    • Jordan is a primarily masculine character. In addition to his value on maintaining his sculpted physique, he displays characteristics such as aggressiveness, forcefulness, and dominance both with his friends and the antagonists of the film.
  • Phil:
    • Phil is the only character in the protagonists that is not conventionally attractive. He is depicted as the weird kid with a girlfriend way out of his league. What little time he spends in the movie, he is primarily hidden behind the camera. He is depicted as the standard male character, however, when Norah catches his attention and he is “helpless” to her charms.
    • Due to his short time in the film, Phil is a character that is not easy to analyze. Despite this, Phil does exemplify several more feminine traits such as modesty, kindness, and sensitivity.
  • Ryan: 
    • Ryan is the standard mean male character in the group. He is pushy, has little care for other characters aside from Anna, and even pushes Phil to cheat on his girlfriend. Despite being in the majority of the film, he does not have much time on screen. He does, however, reveal that past his hard demeanor, he truly loves his girlfriend.
    • Ryan is a primarily masculine character. Aside from his wish to be dominated in bed, Ryan is assertive, aggressive, and forceful when fighting for Anna’s life. He does, however, reveal a more feminine side with his compassion for his girlfriend.
  • Antagonists Include:
    • Brad- The gas station attendant that is the mastermind of the on-site violence and does most of the killing.
    • Steve- The bar owner who is one of Brad’s good friends.
    • Matthew- One of Brad’s men that does most of the hard labor.
    • Chloe- The overly nice front desk lady of the motel that plays no direct role in any of the violence.
    • Norah- The hypersexualized bartender that does no killing but is tangentially involved. For example, Norah does the drugging of the antagonists and encourages the violence with wicked enthusiasm. 
    • Unnamed male observer and planner of the violence

 

Death Analysis

  • Phil: First to die, quick death scene, decapitated from behind with an ax, killed by Brad.
  • Anna: Second to die, extended death scene including stroking and forced kissing from Brad, Torn in half by two trucks driving in opposite directions, killed by two of the antagonist men.
  • Brandy: Third to die, extended death scene involving being submerged in a bathtub while Jordan is hooked up to a wire a few inches over the water. Jordan’s arm is continuously weighed down by a pail full of rocks as he attempts to refrain from dropping the live wire into the water. Brandy is electrocuted by live wire in a bathtub, killed by Jordan as Norah weighs his arm down. 
  • Norah: Fourth to die, extended death scene involving electrocution in Brandy’s bloodied bathwater, electrocuted to death as revenge, killed by Jordan.
  • Ryan: Fifth to die, quick death scene, shot in the head, killed by male antagonist.
  • Matthew: Sixth and last to die, quick death scene, strangled to death, killed by Todd.

 

Survival Analysis

  • Brad and Steve: Shot but live to continue their pattern of murder
  • Claire, Todd, and Jordan: Survive to run to safety.
  • Chloe and Unnamed antagonist: Not included in finale and ending remains ambiguous.

 

Final Statistics:

Character Sex Ratio: 5 Females: 8 Males

Character Survivor Ratio: 1 Female: 4 Males

Character Death Ratio: 60% of Females to 37.5% of Males (not including ambiguous characters)

 

Final Takeaways: 

In No Vacancy, while the characters were moderately diverse, the treatment of male versus female characters was starkly different. All male deaths were handled in quick, unglamorous succession. The longest death scene was a strangling which was still shorter than the female deaths which were dragged out and quite gory. 

All the female deaths were much more violent and torture induced. The scenes focused on violence and the fear of the female characters while the male deaths were too short to induce fear in the characters.

All deaths were performed by men as well. There was no direct killing done by any female characters despite Norah’s insistence on being involved. Instead, Norah and Chloe cleaned up after the killings as the men of the antagonist group induced the majority of the violence. The only death that neared breaking this pattern was Brandy’s where Jordan was forced to kill her as Norah weighed down his arm with rocks. 

In conclusion, No Vacancy, while analyzed using the Sex Role Perspective, both fails the Bechdel Test and depicts a standard masculine/feminine binary with a preference for the male characters. 

Shared by: Ariana Nichols
Image Credit: Tubi