Kitty Green’s film, “The Royal Hotel,” is a perfect horror. The stress it inspired was ulcer-inducing. The film is only 91 minutes, but not a second is wasted and not a beat is mishandled. It’s visually stunning. The acting is right on the mark. The soundtrack is maybe one of the best horror soundtracks this decade. It’s the almost synth club music that transitions into metallic wailing and sets a great tone for the movie.
The whole film is just a slow boil that leaves skin raw and weak. It’s nauseating. It’s a film that cuts deep. It’s also a film that works best with little information going in, so this review will be attempting to balance being vague enough to maintain the experience but also explicit enough to pique interest. Really though, it’s a fantastic film.
“The Royal Hotel” finds friends Liv (Jessica Henwick) and Hanna (Julia Garner), on vacation in Australia, strapped for cash. The two go to an employment agency to find an option for a work-and-vacation two-week stay in the Australian Outback. They are to work at a bar in a rural, isolated mining town. From the onset, it’s clear to the audience this is not going to end well for them.
There are few words that can describe just how much this movie works. It just does. The visuals are sleek and thoughtfully composed. The acting is naturalistic. The sound design is effective. It’s a small, simple plot and it uses its small scale to crush and smother. This film is both an attempt to capture day-to-day horrors and the feel of being trapped in a nightmare. Time is so slow and there are threats everywhere the girls turn. Garner and Henwick are rather petite, so when they are put into the position of having to fight for their lives against large men who do backbreaking work for a living, it hits just how little they have to defend themselves with.
Julia Garner is outstanding. She’s a long-suffering horror heroine trying to keep herself and her best friend alive. No spoilers, but she gets a great scene to flex her famous screaming abilities. Jessica Henwick shows some skill in taking a truly loathsome character and making her tolerable. Again, this film works best with as little information as possible, so all that will be said about Hugo Weaving, Toby Wallace, Daniel Henshall and James Frecheville, who play the miners of the town, is “Jesus Christ, oh my God.”
For viewers who like their horror protagonists to be 100% logical all the time, it needs to be acknowledged that this movie doesn’t give the audience that. The whole starting premise is a “Why would you even do that?” and the bad decisions do not end there. But honestly, poor decision-making is not a real movie flaw, especially when the poor decisions are completely in line with real human error. Everyone knows people who would make the decisions these girls made. The film is based on a documentary, “Hotel Coolgardie,” following two Finnish women who had this exact experience in the Outback. Frankly, mild, young stupidity really should not impede on the ability to sympathize with Garner since silly decisions like getting drunk after the bar is closed really should not have such high stakes for women. However, she’s a great character for heightening frustration and adding to the viewer’s stress.
Royal Hotel’s power lies with the sympathy for the plight of the main characters. This is a story in which misogyny does not just casually devalue women. It is psychological torment. It puts an entire group of people on their knees, begging for mercy from people who have been arbitrarily deemed powerful. The community protects its violent men. It laughs at violence against women. There is pressure from the townspeople; and what’s more frightening is there is no hope for these two women.
A warning for those whom this may be a negative: it’s not as violent as other “misogyny horror” movies. It’s not a delightful blood and thrill fest. It’s also clear that that’s not what it’s supposed to be. If someone is left unsatisfied, it must be understood that it was not for lack of skill or thoughtfulness on the part of Green. This movie is disquieting and unrelenting. It has no interest in making the audience feel “good.” This movie doesn’t need an existential threat to terrify. The evil it works with is prosaic.
For those who are looking for gore or visual disgust, this movie is not really recommended. For someone in the mood for psychological horror? Yeah, this is it. What a great way to see the mind, the body and the rest of the world become enemies.
