*This is a spoiler-free review so feel free to read on!*

“You’re here on vacation?”

The Royal Hotel released in limited theaters on October 6th 2023 and is currently available to stream on demand as of October 23rd 2023. The thriller-drama film stars Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Hugo Weaving, Toby Wallace, James Frecheville, and Daniel Henshall. It runs for approximately 90 minutes.

Hanna and Liv are having the time of their lives vacationing in Australia, but when they wind up short on cash, they agree to take a temporary job bartending in a remote Outback mining town that puts them in danger.

Here is the trailer:

The Royal Hotel features two gripping performances in a chilling setting, but does all the buildup lead to anything worthwhile? Let’s find out…

The Pros:

Two worthy leads.

The best part of this film was the two strong performances by Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick. They were both very believable and portrayed some heavy stuff in tense situations. I wish they were given a little bit more content to work with here, but I enjoyed their performances and they elevated this film in a lot of ways.

A setting and premise with loads of potential.

When I first saw the trailer for this film, I was so beyond excited to watch it. It screamed vibes of Wolf Creek and Brokedown Palace. We had a really good set-up and some intense moments built in, but the end result wasn’t what I was expecting…

The Cons:

Not sure why this was billed as a thriller?

Sure, there were some intense moments here and there, but I was super frustrated with this film because it felt like we were building up to an insane climax and then the end result was lukewarm at best. It just never really went anywhere…

This really should have been billed as a drama instead. I think that it will disappoint an audience looking for an actual thriller. The drama wasn’t bad, but setting up that expectation made this a confusing watch for me.

Lacked necessary character layers.

I didn’t need that many, but some would have been nice, especially since our two leads are incredibly talented and basically carried this movie. I needed to know more about why they were in Australia in the first place and maybe some crucial moments between them in their past could have explained some of the tension building throughout the film.

So am I in or out?

I’m 50/50 on this one…

I think that people will either love or hate this film. I’m somewhere in the middle of that. It wasn’t bad by any means and I actually thoroughly enjoyed the performances by our two main leads, but I wanted SO MUCH MORE!

Julia Garner needed to unleash her inner Ruth Langmore from Ozark to give this movie some serious edge.

I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on The Royal Hotel in the comments section below. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!

Best,

Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl

DON’T TAKE THE JOB…

It was only supposed to be temporary…but when Olivia Crewe accepts a new position that seems too good to be true, she soon discovers that twelve other girls previously had the same job as her. Only none of them lasted for more than thirty days. No notice. Nothing…right before they mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

My supernatural thriller Girl Number Thirteen is out now! I hope you enjoy!

Girl Number Thirteen is available here!

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