Proceeds along familiar genre lines. But the denouement comes as a surprise, the five women are great screamers, and the cinematography and music add to the general feeling of menace.
Mr. Bogliano, just 19 at the start of production, has made a promising debut that consistently hits the right creepy points while exhibiting impressive gory effects created with extremely limited resources.
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Far grislier than one ordinarily expects from black-and-white, Habitaciones Para Turistas is a real homemade fright.
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Director/cowriter Adrian Garcia Bogliano's self-conscious throwback to the kind of gritty black-and-white gore films that used to play drive-in theaters and urban grind houses is a short, sharp shocker that gets surprising mileage out of the oldest formula in the book of the dead.
It'd be great if Rooms For Tourists had a clearer point, or something significant to say about the human condition, but even in spite of its low budget, cruddy look, and modest aspirations, the movie is art of a kind.
40
Village Voice
Village Voice
The scenario is absurd enough to play as satire, but no, the film warns us, "If you think that we are just a bunch of mental cases you didn't understand anything." Clearly, I didn't understand anything.