As he rests, there's a knock on the door. He pries up the floorboards, drops a satchel into the crawlspace below and replaces them. In 1959, Felix O'Kelly (played very briefly by Nick Offerman) enters a room in the El Royale motel. SPOILERS! THIS IS A MOVIE BEST SEEN 'COLD,' SO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT BEFORE READING THE RECAP! These were both minor structural problems though, as this was easily the best film I've seen all year (although I realize that's damning it with very faint praise). Once he makes his entrance, it almost feels like a brand new movie's starting up. It started to overstay its welcome about halfway through the third act, as I was wishing it would hurry and wrap up all the various subplots.Ĭhris Hemsworth's sudden appearance late in the third act didn't help either. But Bad Times At The El Royale feels like it's about twenty minutes too long. Normally I don't care how long a movie is if it's entertaining. My only real complaint about the film is its length, as it clocks in at 141 minutes. I was less impressed with that aspect of the film, as it was a bit too Tarantino-esque for my tastes. It also plays around with its timeline, often showing the same event from the point of view of multiple characters. Like most of Hitchcock's films, Bad Times At The El Royale features extended takes of characters performing seemingly mundane tasks, and yet you're completely riveted by what's happening. It's actually very Hitchcockian it its execution.

It's very deliberately paced and takes its sweet time telling its story, which is a rarity these days. I wouldn't call the movie slow, but it's definitely a slow burn film. I had absolutely no idea where the story was going or what was going to happen next, and it was absolutely wonderful. It's a completely original and self-contained film that tells its own story, and doesn't spend half the run time setting up a cinematic universe. The best thing about Bad Times At The El Royale is that it's not a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot or reimagining. He does the same thing here in Bad Times At The El Royale, which similarly reexamines film noir and suspense movies and offers a new spin on them. He's also worked extensively in TV, writing for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alias and LOST.īack in 2012, Drew Goddard deconstructed slasher & horror movies with The Cabin In The Woods, which offered a fresh and clever new look at the genre. He wrote and directed The Cabin In The Woods.

He previously wrote Cloverfield, World War Z and The Martian. Bad Times At The El Royale was written and directed by Drew Goddard.

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