Thanks once again to TubiTV, I was able to watch another 80's cult classic to celebrate the upcoming Halloween season. Motel Hell is yet another (VHS) movie I remember seeing on the shelves of my local video rental store back in my youth. Unable to watch it as a youth, I had to wait nearly 30 years before I was able to view this classic. Come on, with a tag line like "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent Fritters", how could you not watch this?
There are several different movie posters for this movie, but some of them don't portray the movie in the best way. The poster shown above however does paint a better picture.
Motel Hell stars Rory Calhoun as farmer Vincent Smith, local proprietaire of Motel Hello. He runs the hotel with his sister, Ida (Nancy Parsons) along with their side business of selling smoked meats. People come from miles away to sample his various meats, which we see at the beginning of the movie. He's somewhat of a local celebrity, but do the people of Grainville, CA know that he is peddling cannibalism?
I've seen a lot of horror movies and the 80's served up some of the best in my opinion. This movie however marched to the beat of it's own drum. It was odd, yet satisfyingly fun. I can't say this is a scary movie because of the main story. I'm not sure if it was meant to be tongue in cheek, but the campy story is hard to take serious. The movie isn't bloody or gory either, despite what you may think from alternate movie posters that are out there.
What I couldn't figure out initially while watching the movie was the purpose of the "secret garden". You see Vincent unlocking the vine covered gate located away from the hotel itself, looking around to make sure no one else was near by. However it's later in the film before you get to see what is in the actual garden. After Vincent would find people for his recipe, he would bury them in the ground in the garden. This didn't make sense to me, then during a later picnic scene he references his mother not having an ice chest. I'm going to assume he dug holes to put the bodies in to keep them cold/fresh while he waited for the bodies to be ready to be "prepared".
Since he left the heads above ground, he would sever their vocal chords so they wouldn't make noise. He would then place a burlap sack over their heads. At one point in the movie you see him inserting an eight track cassette into a player, assumingly to drown out any noise made by the bodies inside the garden.
Nina Axelrod plays Terry, a young girl that Vincent saves from a motorcycle accident early in the movie. His motivation to save her isn't known at first, but later you realize he had hoped he could "convert" her and bring her into the family business. Vincent's sister, Ida, is skeptical from the beginning and shows aggression towards Terry on multiple occasions. Enter the younger brother, Bruce (Paul Linke) who happens to be the town's sheriff. It's unknown if he really knows what the family business is, but he almost instantly falls head over heels for Terry.
The family dynamic is odd and much of the movie I feel revolves around the relationship between Terry and Vincent as well as Terry and Bruce. After learning of Terry and Vincent's pending wedding, he takes the news by checking up on Terry. He thinks she is being forced into marriage, only to learn this is what she wants. He takes the rejection by looking into his brother as he feels something is up. This is when he learns the secret behind the family business and becomes the knight in shining armor to eventually save our damsel in distress.
The smokehouse scenes featuring the dueling chainsaws and the bloodied pig mask is what most people think of when this movie comes up. However it plays such a small part in the overall story. I read somewhere that this scene took the longest to film and wasn't in the original script, added at the last minute. I guess they thought the inclusion of a chainsaw would help sell tickets as this movie was released a few years after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Pieces.
What I couldn't figure out initially while watching the movie was the purpose of the "secret garden". You see Vincent unlocking the vine covered gate located away from the hotel itself, looking around to make sure no one else was near by. However it's later in the film before you get to see what is in the actual garden. After Vincent would find people for his recipe, he would bury them in the ground in the garden. This didn't make sense to me, then during a later picnic scene he references his mother not having an ice chest. I'm going to assume he dug holes to put the bodies in to keep them cold/fresh while he waited for the bodies to be ready to be "prepared".
Since he left the heads above ground, he would sever their vocal chords so they wouldn't make noise. He would then place a burlap sack over their heads. At one point in the movie you see him inserting an eight track cassette into a player, assumingly to drown out any noise made by the bodies inside the garden.
Nina Axelrod plays Terry, a young girl that Vincent saves from a motorcycle accident early in the movie. His motivation to save her isn't known at first, but later you realize he had hoped he could "convert" her and bring her into the family business. Vincent's sister, Ida, is skeptical from the beginning and shows aggression towards Terry on multiple occasions. Enter the younger brother, Bruce (Paul Linke) who happens to be the town's sheriff. It's unknown if he really knows what the family business is, but he almost instantly falls head over heels for Terry.
The family dynamic is odd and much of the movie I feel revolves around the relationship between Terry and Vincent as well as Terry and Bruce. After learning of Terry and Vincent's pending wedding, he takes the news by checking up on Terry. He thinks she is being forced into marriage, only to learn this is what she wants. He takes the rejection by looking into his brother as he feels something is up. This is when he learns the secret behind the family business and becomes the knight in shining armor to eventually save our damsel in distress.
The smokehouse scenes featuring the dueling chainsaws and the bloodied pig mask is what most people think of when this movie comes up. However it plays such a small part in the overall story. I read somewhere that this scene took the longest to film and wasn't in the original script, added at the last minute. I guess they thought the inclusion of a chainsaw would help sell tickets as this movie was released a few years after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Pieces.
Overall this was a more of dark comedy than a horror movie in my book, however it was still a lot of fun and yet another 80's movie that I'm glad to mark off my list.
I remember watching a slightly edited version one late night on either the USA Network (Up All Night?) or TNT (Joe Bob?) way back when, but haven't seen it since. Aside from knowing that I saw it, I can't remember anything specific about the film itself, and really probably should try to see it again one of these days.
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