Hotel (2004)

Hotel is a short Austrian horror/mystery film, at the time of writing, available in full on YouTube or Artificial Eye DVD. It stars Franziska Weisz as Irene, a newly recruited desk clerk in a hotel in the back-end of nowhere, replacing Eva, her predecessor, who, it turns out, seems to be currently missing, disappeared without trace.

Around the site of the hotel during the film, the police are interviewing the staff about it and even dredging the hotel’s pond/lake for any signs of a body. But it’s never spoken openly about by the odd-ball collection of characters who sullenly run the hotel, lurk around corners, indulge in ritualistic behaviours and generally remain tight-lipped and dour.

Then there’s the mystery surrounding a local cave where a bunch of hikers had mysteriously disappeared some years ago and the ancient legend of some witch or other from the local woods, who Irene is given a brief introduction to the story regarding during her brief, cold induction. The induction in which a creepy under-manager leads her through basement corridors where lights time out if a person lingers too long and with a door that shouldn’t be opened, if one knows what’s good for one!

She asks if she can use the hotel pool out of hours instead of running for exercise, which is reluctantly granted by another of the glum employees who looks like she has a huge amount to hide. And so on. And that’s the main thrust of the film really. It’s staged as a horror, but almost all of the so-called horror is about suspense, darkness, the spooky cave, strange fumblings with local people and suggestions of what might be. What might have happened to Eva, whether Irene is trapped with the same fate awaiting, or whether whatever it is, is going to happen to her as well!

It’s very slow-paced for most of the length of the film but shot so as to squeeze every drop of atmosphere out of the building itself - by use of lighting, angles, dark corridors - and similarly spooky locations out and around the hotel. Irene is presented as pretty much the same dour, glum character as those around her, so she seems to fit in well. She decidedly lacks personality and humour or flair - I don’t think anyone as much as smiles throughout the whole 1 hour 17 minute runtime!

Anyway, it’s clearly an interesting project from director/writer Jessica Hausner, which is worth a watch. In German with subtitles on YouTube, so grab it while you can. Try not to nod off, but instead accept the above and consume the spooky atmosphere as you wonder what, if anything, is to become of poor Irene, thrown into the middle of this dark, gloomy situation.