Bad Times at the El Royale Review

   

Drew Goddard is an up and coming director that is slowly making a name for himself. His directorial debut Cabin in the Woods is one of my favorite horror movies that I have ever seen and one where I will give a special attention sometime in the future. Other films that he wrote as a screenwriter such as Cloverfield and The Martian hold a special place in my heart especially the latter. Just to get it out of the way he wrote and directed the first two episodes of Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil. A pity then that his second film that he wrote and direct, Bad Times at the El Royale is a real disappointment when I finally watched it on Blu-Ray. There will be spoilers in the review.

Plot-wise it is very character driven meaning their actions dictate how the story is going to be told. A group of strangers converge on an old hotel that is located between the states of California and Nevada. Father Daniel Flynn is an old priest who is exploring the countryside. Darlene is a singer who is staying for one night for she has a performance in Reno the following day. Laramie at first appears to be a manager of the hotel but makes it known explicitly that he is a traveling vacuum salesman. Lastly, a young woman named Emily who appears as a hippy wants to stay in one of the rooms.

The plot kicks off by having the title cards have the room numbers where each character is staying. Although before that, the film starts with a man entering into a room played by Nick Offerman, who you may know him as Ron from Parks and Rec. He brings a bag and hides it underneath the floor of his hotel room. The entire shot is shot in one frame. Offerman’s character notices something in the mirror, he then hears his door knock and another man approaches and shoots him dead.

Watching the individual acts reminded me of the nonlinear approach that Quentin Tarantino used in his earlier films such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. With the first act “Room 1”, we find out that Laramie is not who we think he is. He calls his family and speaks to his daughter. As he does so, he disassembles the wiretap he finds in the phone of the hotel room. He does so more throughout the hotel room by finding more wiretaps and realizing something is wrong. Interestingly, Laramie discovers the mirror in his room is a two-way mirror and discovers a hallway with other two-way mirrors. He listens to Darlene singing and Emily bring a body that is bonded with cloth.

The second title card “Room 5” is mostly focused on Darlene. We see that she belonged to a group of singers in a band. She is chastised by the manager as he states that she is not good enough. Father Flynn knocks on her door and invites her to have a drink. We discover that he has a problem remembering and could be attributed to dementia. As the Father prepares the next round of drinks, he slips in a drug. Darlene then knocks out the father and leaves the lobby quickly.

The actual problem with the film unravels when we cut back to Laramie in the third title card “Washington D.C.”. Laramie tells his superiors that the room he is staying is bugged and the operation (it is vague and not elaborated) is compromised. Additionally, he tells his superiors that he saw a potential kidnapping, but they order him to stick with the plan (which is still vague and it’s not revealed what he was investigating) and to not interfere with the kidnapping. It becomes apparent that the film has a pacing problem. Why exactly do we cut to Laramie after following Darlene? Wouldn’t it make sense if this part came before Darlene’s scene? Also, it’s never revealed what exactly Laramie was investigating or why the hotel contained two-way mirrors and recorders to the room.

Following that, we focus on Emily and her hostage who is her sister named Rose in “Room 7”. It is established that they both belonged to a derivative cult led by Chris Hemsworth. Again, the pesky pacing problem rears its head when we cut to the two women as young girls who dealt with an abusive father. Why do we need that detail? It became annoying that the flashback had another flashback. We then cut back to the present and Laramie becomes concerned of the two of them. He barges in and Emily kills him where he is standing by the mirror. Emily discovers that the mirror is connected to the hallway.

Yet another flashback appears in the fourth title card “Room 4”. We find out that Father Daniel was a criminal bank robber and has moments where his memory loss is getting worse. The scene cuts back to when the hotel manager Miles wakes him up from being knocked out by Darlene. They both go into the hallway and Flynn accuses Miles of spying on him. Miles says that he didn’t and was ordered to do so. We never find out who ordered him or what the deal is with the rooms being bugged. It becomes frustrating since there appears to be an emphasis on details that are not needed and details that actually need to be elaborated but are not. It’s compounded near the end of the movie which I will get to.

So the cult leader somehow finds the hotel and takes Flynn, Darlene, and Miles as hostages. He finds that the bag that was stuffed underneath one of the rooms and realizes that it contains loads of money. Miles somehow breaks free and starts to kill the hippies and Emily. I swear this flashback pissed me the hell off. We see that Miles was a young kid who actually had a good shot with a gun. Cut to him in a jungle in obviously Vietnam because why not, shooting at the Vietcong. Eventually, Rose kills Miles after he kills Chris Hemsworth’s character. She dies from being shot by Flynn. Darlene and Flynn quickly leave the now abandoned hotel.

A couple things as to why this film was a massive disappointment for me. For one glaring thing is the pacing. It is abrupt and as I mentioned earlier, a lot of plot threads that are interesting are entirely dropped as the film continued. I wondered why exactly threads such as Laramie’s mission or the hotel’s sketchy ownership was even brought up. It could have been interesting to see something about why the hotel had their rooms bugged. Maybe tie it in with the killer hippies? It is such a glaring flaw that it really hampered the film’s run time. It didn’t really need to be an extra hour long. I feel that this one has to be a learning experience to Drew Godard on keeping pace with the plot and being invested with the characters. With so much unnecessary detail and flashback it becomes way too much detail oriented that there is no pay off.

What I will give credit is the acting. Everyone does a good job with what they got. Somehow, Goddard has Hemsworth give a convincing southern accent that he can pull of considering that he’s Australian. The set design and look of the movie just shout late sixties and early seventies. The main lobby of the hotel has a divide which shows California and Nevada. Since it’s obvious which one has a gambling slot machine. Unfortunately, great aesthetics can only do so much but not entirely fix the film’s internal problem.

I feel that Goddard has a good career ahead of him. He can craft interesting characters and tell a unique plot, though this one has to be a teachable moment for him going forward.

Bad Times at the El Royale gets a 3 out of 5.